Hogg and his brutes had never dared approach this swamp town before, but they hadn't only just discovered it.
In fact, two days after Murphy had ordered Hogg to send scouts into the swamp, the Bloodclaw Chieftain had already received a report about the town.
It stood near a muddy bog in Filthy Swamp, close to Transia, right beside the road to the Dark Baron's territory. To its east lay the only mountain pass leading into the dreaded "forbidden zone" deep in Filthy Swamp. Its position perfectly controlled the route through the swamp from Transia to the Dark Mountains.
It was enough to make anyone suspect that these gnoll warlocks had planned it all from the beginning.
And "Blight Town" was no small outpost. Judging by its appearance alone, this gloomy place was a fifth the size of Cadman City had once been.
Most of the town's buildings were wooden tents built atop the stone foundations of ruins, making the place look like a cluster of stilt houses or bamboo huts. Vines, grown from low swamp trees twisted by psionic power, served as bridges connecting the buildings, forming a three-dimensional swamp maze with a very poor design.
On top of that, the Blight Warlocks had laid some sort of curse sigil using tainted psionic energy. Gray-black smoke shrouded the town and sky, forming a layer of "war fog" that prevented eavesdropping and reconnaissance.
Shrouded in the murk, the town looked from a distance like some grotesque, diseased thing made of tangled knots.
If some little player had been here, he would surely have shouted, "What the hell! Isn't this just a dark-swamp version of Booty Bay?"
It was hard to imagine how much manpower and material these gnoll Blight Warlocks had spent building such an extraordinary structure in this godforsaken