Deep in the southern reaches of Taladas lies Blackwater Glade, a sweltering, disease-ridden wetland created by the Cataclysm. While humans avoid its bug-infested channels, it is home to the fierce Swampers and the true rulers of the marsh: the Bakali lizardmen. Buy Time of the Dragon: https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/16960/time-of-the-dragon-2e?affiliate_id=50797
Transcript
Cold Open
Sunk by the catastrophic fury of Hiteh’s Night, this sweltering drainage basin swallowed whole civilizations, transforming a once-great empire into a disease-ridden playground for monsters and forgotten gods.
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam, and today we are traveling to the southern tip of Southern Hosk to explore one of the most hostile environments in Taladas: Blackwater Glade. I’d like to take a moment and thank the DLSaga members and Patreon patrons, and invite you to consider becoming a member or patron — you can even pick up Dragonlance media or get $10 by signing up to StartPlaying.Games using my affiliate links. I’m referencing the Time of the Dragon boxed set for this information. If I leave anything out or misspeak, please leave a comment below.
Discussion
Warmed by thermal springs and choked by algae-covered lakes, this sweltering swamp is home to terrifying predators, giant insects, and a primitive race of reptilian humanoids known as the Bakali. The Blackwater Glade was formed when the Cataclysm caused the lower tip of Southern Hosk to sink, creating an immense drainage basin. Fed by rivers flowing out of Thenol and warmed by thermal springs from the Steamwall mountains, the swamp is a maze of reed-choked channels and moss-hung giant cypress trees. The environment itself is an enemy; the air reeks of disease, and explorers are routinely wracked by lifelong fevers and painful spasms. Massive insects buzz through the boughs, hunted by giant spiders spinning moss-disguised webs, while enormous frogs and toads strike from the shadows.
Men do not live deep within the Glade, but a close-knit group of fiercely independent human loners known as the “Swampers” make a living along its edges. Navigating the twisting flows in flat-bottomed boats, they hunt alligators, giant toads, and swamp cats. While they technically fall under the rule of Thenol, they pay no taxes and refuse to be drafted into military service. Instead, they strike a bargain with the Thenolite government: they act as border scouts, keeping a watchful eye on the true rulers of the deep country—the Bakali.
Deep within the unexplored channels live the Bakali, powerful humanoid lizards standing seven to eight feet tall. Covered in thick, spiny, alligator-like leather ranging in shades of green, brown, and yellow, they possess perfect natural camouflage. They have webbed, taloned hands, large lidless eyes, and powerful lizard-like snouts.
Today, the Bakali live as a primitive, culturally undeveloped race. They have no concept of family; females lay eggs in communal village nesting grounds, leaving the young to fend for themselves. The weak starve while the strong survive by fighting for food thrown to them by elders. To earn full acceptance into the tribe, a young Bakali must hunt and kill a bull alligator completely unassisted.
Their villages, surrounded by flimsy palisades of woven reeds and bones, feature dug-out mud huts or riverbank tunnels where their sleeping chambers sit half-submerged below the water line. Because stone and metal are virtually non-existent in the Glade, they fight with fire-hardened wooden spears, bone daggers, and nets. They are ferocious cold-blooded warriors, but sluggish at night and bound to their life-giving waters. Recognizing their raw power, the Thenolite army eagerly recruits them, utilizing their unique amphibious abilities to breach watery defenses and cross rivers during military campaigns.
While the Bakali appear to be simple savages, the deep interior of Blackwater Glade holds secrets that completely rewrite their history. Deep in the swamp sit low hills cluttered with tumbled, submerged stone ruins. The Bakali strictly avoid these waters, believing they are haunted by evil spirits called “saraki”. However, brave lizardmen who venture inside occasionally recover incredible prizes: perfectly preserved metal armor and weapons engineered precisely to fit their massive, bulky frames.
These ruins are entirely Bakali-built, dating back millennia to an era long before the Cataclysm when the Bakali were a highly advanced, civilized empire that ruled and built grand towns across Taladas. Over time, their homelands dried out, causing a massive societal decline that was only halted when the Cataclysm reflooded the basin. Today, several of these ancient, stone complexes have become the secluded lairs of rogue Othlorx dragons raising their broods, alongside restless undead bones that have been dead for over a thousand years.
Very few humans have ever seen these sunken cities, but a century ago, a human wizard named Amrocar dedicated the better part of his life to studying them. He braved the dangerous interior, mapping the ruins and recording his deductions in a detailed journal. Upon his death, this book passed into the Imperial Libraries at Kristophan, where it sits forgotten in a musty niche.
Amrocar’s journal reveals that the ancient Bakali Empire was staggeringly rich and exceptionally powerful. More importantly, he speculated that the original empire builders were incredibly talented wizards who specialized in fabricating magical potions, pills, and powders from natural swamp materials. His most audacious theory suggests that the modern Bakali dragonmen are not actually the descendants of the original builders at all; instead, he believed the modern lizardmen were merely the biological creations of the original, vanished Bakali—servants who outlasted their masters when the ancient empire collapsed.
This is a dangerous region for any adventuring party to explore, but for those ancient civilization buffs out there, it is a wonderful region to explore the ancient bakali civilization, and possibly discover remnants of this one mighty race.
Outro
But that is all the time I have to talk about Blackwater Glade. Are the modern Bakali a fallen people, or are they the living bioweapons of a lost civilization of master wizards? Would your players dare to infiltrate the Imperial Libraries to steal Amrocar’s century-old maps, or risk the disease-ridden waters of the Glade to claim ancient, magical armor? Leave a comment below.
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We’ll have to go out through the kitchen.
