The Obojima Podcast the Blog | Episode 8 - Creating a Toxic Location in D&D: The Corrupted Coastline

This blog post was made using dictation summary software, and posted for SEO purposes. If you really want to know what this episode is about, check out the full episode here: https://youtu.be/urr_Um01ksI?si=XKcyMp3a1dhWp7El

It’s episode 8 and we’re all feeling great! Welcome to the blog of the Obojima Podcast! This podcast is a deep dive into the creative process of creating Obojima: Tales from the Tall Grass. First things first, let’s meet our intrepid crew of writers. 

• Jeremiah Crofton - The Creative Director of 1985 Games and the creator of Obojima. 

• Ari Levitch - Head Writer

• Adam Lee - Head Writer

As the team gathered around the table to explore a new corner of the Obojima campaign setting, the tone shifted. Episode 8 marked a descent into something darker—the Corrupted Coastline—a place where the island’s natural magic has begun to fail, mutate, and retaliate.

The Nature of the Corruption

Unlike other regions of Obojima that teem with quirky magic and oddball charm, the Corrupted Coastline is not a place to barter or linger. It is an active threat—a location designed to be avoided, survived, or perhaps cleansed. The Corruption is spreading inland from the island’s eastern edge, crawling from the blackened surf like a living infection. It saturates the sand, climbs the trees, and infects everything it touches in wildly inconsistent but always dangerous ways.

Importantly, the Corruption changes things—but never the same way twice. It skeletonizes fish yet leaves them aware. It twists rangers and sickens trees. It transforms spirits into demons, not through moral fall, but by simple contact. It does not appear to discriminate. Its touch is chaos. Its intent, if it has one, is still unknown.

Unraveling the Timeline

The source? Possibly a massive earthquake three months prior, followed by a mysterious tsunami. Since then, the Corruption has been creeping—first laterally along the shore, then vertically into soil, swamps, and root systems. While its movement appears to have slowed, core samples taken by the AHA suggest otherwise. The Corruption is digging downward, infiltrating the water table, threatening to reemerge inland in unexpected places.

The spread isn’t like wildfire—it moves in furrows, deep gouges like channels, suggesting it prefers underground paths, especially through water. This gives it a terrifying unpredictability: you don’t see it coming until it’s already beneath you.

Corruption as a Living System

Whether the Corruption is sentient remains a matter of debate. Some liken it to a disease. Others speculate it is an ancient, perhaps forgotten spirit—a reaction to imbalance or even an attack on Obojima itself. One theory proposes the Corruption as a “mycelial intelligence”, an underground sensory web that reacts to life force like a predator to scent.

This brings up the Corruption’s curious “give and take” behavior: it steals something fundamental, like a ranger’s vitality, but replaces it with unnatural power. In other cases, it gifts sentience to mud or muck without taking anything at all—raising the unsettling possibility that it wants something back.

Spiritfall: When the Good Become Demons

Perhaps the most harrowing revelation of the session was how the Corruption interacts with spirits. Traditionally, a spirit becomes a demon only by choice, by turning malevolent and being cast out. But this corruption forces that transformation—a violation of spiritual law.

Contact with the Corruption rips away a spirit’s nature. It doesn’t seduce; it consumes. The result is a demonized reflection of what once was, stripped of its role, mercy, or name. No known cure exists.

Humans, by contrast, have a delay. Their physical form buffers them—temporarily. But once a ranger’s connection to the Corruption is severed, it doesn’t end—it festers, pulling from within. The more time spent in contact, the more they change.

The Corrupted Ranger and Player Arcs

The concept of corrupted rangers emerged as a potent storytelling thread. Rangers who ventured into the early stages of the Corruption have been irrevocably altered—sickened, powered, broken. At high levels, this could culminate in a final character arc where a ranger succumbs, transforming into a demon. The player must then decide: resist, retreat, or embrace what they’ve become.

This opens a new avenue for non-lethal character “death”—a narrative retirement with ripple effects for the rest of the party. The corrupted ranger may one day return… or need to be stopped.

Echoes of the Past and Campaign Structure

Speculation turned to the possibility of a lost vanguard—a group of 10–15 rangers, potentially the “seventh faction” of Obojima, who were dispatched after the quake to investigate. They never returned. Now, they may be encountered as corrupted monsters, half-spirit ghosts, or lost NPCs in need of mercy. This lays the groundwork for a prequel campaign that could focus on halting the Corruption before it begins—or witnessing its birth firsthand.

Environment, Villages, and Visual Tone

On the coast, the Corruption has not just changed the land—it has devoured it. Once-lively forests now stand silent. Wildlife has fled. Entire villages may have been dragged into the sea, with shattered boats left floating like buoys in the surf. In one concept, a village transforms into a shambling entity—a rubble golem of buildings and stone, animated by the Corruption like a puppet of grief.

Another village, built on stilts in the wetlands, clings to survival. They’ve adapted—not by fighting the Corruption, but by avoiding it. Even so, their nets pull in dead, meatless fish, and their patience is thinning. One NPC is a hardened survivalist Ranger building barriers from felled trees. Another is a curious AHA scientist—his unlikely partner. Tension simmers.

Monsters and Mechanics

The Corrupted Coastline is ideal for introducing corrupted variants of familiar Obojima creatures: a howler with patchy fur and rage-driven behavior, skeletal fish folk with sunken eyes, viperfish-like humanoids nesting in a graveyard of sunken ships.

And then there’s the giant eel—not yet fully corrupted, writhing and aware. It might become a boss encounter, a reluctant ally, or a tragic savior. If freed, it could absorb the Corruption and vanish into the abyss… or carry the party underwater, offering protection and passage in return for its liberation.

Mechanical and Magical Reactions

The Corruption has unclear resistances. Radiant or cold damage might weaken it. Healing magic may even harm it. Force magic, paradoxically, may feed it—a revelation with enormous implications for casters. What is certain is that direct contact with “pure Corruption”—a viscous, sliding substance with tendrils—is dangerous, requiring special care or equipment. However, most travel through the area involves contaminated terrain, not the pure form.

Its infected creations are varied and dangerous: living clay tendrils, spiritless forest animals, reanimated mud, all driven by a singular goal—to take and bring back.

Closing Thoughts

The team wrapped Episode 8 with a clear direction: the Corrupted Coastline is a mystery, a warning, and a story engine. It is a preview of Obojima’s fate if no heroes rise to face what crawls from the tide. There is no neutral stance here—only transformation, resistance, or ruin.

Check out the full episode here: https://youtu.be/urr_Um01ksI?si=XKcyMp3a1dhWp7El