[Urbis] Locations of the Cold Frontier - Marsh Giant Lair and Mating Beach

,Deep in the interior of the Cold Frontier there lies a folorn and fetid swamp. This is the home of a tribe of marsh giants - a dozen individuals or so. Their surroundings are as vile as they are, including such monsters as Yellow Musk Creepers. In general, they don't stray far from home, periodically raiding the fungus fields in the next hex downriver. If they spot any Adlets to the north or members of the human Inland Tribes to the south they attempt to capture or kill them for food, but the former are usually too canny and fast to be caught while the latter know enough to stay away. In general, they spend their days sleeping, rutting, and eating whatever they can find, though sometimes they conduct religious ceremonies in which they abase themselves before disturbing idols and sacrifice sapient captives (before eating them). Their great fecundity is kept in check by their lack of regard for the welfare of their children and their habit of eating each other when they are particularly hungry. Initially, they are not much of a threat and easily avoided, but if the colony later expands into their area they will need to be dealt with.

Once every year at the beginning of fall the whole tribe goes on a long trek to the south, walking through the plains and the mountains until they reach the shore, 70 miles south of their homes, and devouring everything in their path that isn't smart enough to stay away - and the tribes certainly do know enough to keep away from both the route and the beach area the giants claim for this occasion. The nearby native villagers call this area the Mating Beach, for on the first full moon of autumn the Marsh Giants hold a ceremony in which they call giant aquatic creatures with the aid of ceremonial drums (fashioned out of hollowed-out trees). These protoplasmic entities which appear as shambling mounds of eyes, tentacles, and orifices of various kinds were originally created by the aboleths as brood factories for servitor life forms, and usually 3-4 will arrive when the giants call them and attempt to mate with anyone and anything they find. The Marsh Giants will do so willingly, while other nearby life forms might experience a mental blackout from the potent pheromones the creature emits, awakening later with no memories but being covered with minor cuts and bruises and all sorts of unspeakable substances (and torn clothing, in the case of sapient beings). The creature will later spawn its mutant offspring into the ocean, some of which might wash up on the beach, while impregnated land dwellers will give birth to tentacled things after an otherwise normal term of pregnancy.

Explorers coming across the Mating Beach at other times will find both the ceremonial drums and an idol - a moss-covered mound built out of branches, with two primitive humanoid "log figures" attached to it - one in a seeming embrace while the other lies half beneath the mound. Anyone foolish enough to play the drums during any other full moon night will be able to summon one of the creatures, though the local tribes have cautionary tales warning against this.