Shrine of the Diseased One (Patreon)

Steps lead up out of the swampy wastes into the mouth-like opening of the shrine. Insects fly thick here, a constant droning buzz as robber flies circle, hunting for warm homes to host their eggs. The stone stairs are smooth and uneven; covered with dry scabrous chunks of desiccated goo and fresh slime from both the swamp and dripping down from within. Past the mouth-like orifice, a second flight of slippery stairs leads up to the chamber of the Diseased One, a massive stone idol of an anthropomorphic fly that resembles a very large fly sitting on the shoulders of a very fat person with two arms and six fly legs.

People come out this way seeking succor from illnesses, sometimes their own but often for friends or family. They risk the journey through the Black Mire and its many strange inhabitants to offer sacrifices to the Diseased One for the demon/god to stop “paying attention” to their loved ones. Many do not survive the trip along the ancient walkways in and out of the Black Mire, and many more return home feverish and ill themselves, infected by foul miasmas of the swamp or by the many insects that thrum around the shrine.

For the Diseased One offers no succor, only more suffering to those who would dare beg for its mercies.

This was drawn for Agamemnon Press’s “Hellcrawl” hexcrawl that is set in actual hell. The description above is not based on the adventure in question, but instead transposes the site from an extraplanar hell and into the Black Mire of my own campaign setting and my “Challenge of the Frog Idol” adventure.

I've also attached a drawing I did that provides more detail of the massive idol in the centre of the main chamber of the shrine.

https://dysonlogos.blog/2026/07/17/shrine-of-the-diseased-one/