That's actually a pretty good example of a clue. The key is that the players have to have the requisite background information to know that something is wrong when they get to the wetlands.
In the campaign I am currently running, I did something similar (though it was only one being that was breaking free). The weakening of the prison first manifested in a gradual mutation of the countryside around the "heart" of the prison. As the campaign progressed, so did the mutation.
Other cues you can use include things like wild magic zones, or even non-magic zones. Essentially what you want to do is figure out what the imprisoned Titans can do (what were their roles pre-imprisonment, etc.) and then as the prison begins to weaken, the imprisoned Titans are able to exert bits and pieces of their will upon the land. The weaker the prison is, the more the Titans can exert their, and the stronger and more prominent the effects.
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A note from my limited experience as a GM: Just because you think something is an obvious clue, do not assume your players find it obvious or even remember it.
Let's take your wetlands situation as an example. If you simply have them enter the wetlands at one point and play a normal adventure through there and then come back to the wetlands later, chances are they won't remember what the environment was like. So, you have to be a bit more blatant. When your players first go through these wetlands, emphasize how hard it is to track things because of the murky waters. In combat, let there be plenty of difficult terrain due to the water; and in other areas, you can have the mud be so thick and nasty it effectively acts as a slow spell. When they camp, mention how they can't see a darned thing because of the thick fog in the marsh. Hammer the fact that they are in a swampy swamp home until they hate you for it.
Now, when they come back to the Wetlands and the place is... dry? They are going to start saying, "Um, wasn't this that place that we hated because it was so wet? Why is it all dried up? Where did the Will-O-Wisps go?"
They'll start to ask questions.
EDIT: One example from a previous game I ran involved goblins. I made my players HATE the goblins in this one forest, because the goblins were master freakin' ambushers. They would attack at night riding giant flying insects, armed with lances and shortbows. They would set up pits and net traps between the trees. The leaders of these little warbands would have potions... AND DRINK THEM IN FRONT OF THE PCS. They used flanking, the ones who were level 1 rogues used sneak attack, etc. They were real bastards.
And then, one adventure, the party came back and the goblins were NOWHERE. There were zero goblins. Zip. Nada.
That's how they started to figure out that there was a massive coalition of monster races gathering together to wipe out the human settlements once and for all.
There's always the wisdom check clue-hammer, too.
It's not a tool you want to overuse, but if the players are having trouble connecting the dots for some reason, then you can use a Wisdom check to nudge them in the right direction.
I second Inlaa's approach. Whatever clues you have need a memorable hook, and descriptive storytelling is the most organic way to set those hooks. You just have to make sure that if there's a clue that you need the characters to pick up on later, the players have to hear about it at the proper time. The clue doesn't have to be blatant or earth-shattering, and the players don't have to be able to remember it, or know that it's relevant...they just need to have that "aha!" moment later on if you have to nudge them.
You can also connect dots or emphasize an important bit of information through an NPC...the party are not the only people in the world that will notice changes...a huge swamp mysteriously drying up would get the locals talking, assuming there are some. Anybody making a living from a particular area will notice the changes first.
My rule of thumb for mystery-heavy campaigns:
Assume all players are Watson; Assume any character can be Sherlock if they roll high enough numbers.
You could ensure there are NPCs that can provide information or even just act as scenery. The first time through, they meet some guides who lead them to the adventure place talking about how great the alligator meat trade is around these parts. Next time the players come through, they'll run into one of the guides who is begging on the street because there just ain't no more crocs to hunt. The third time through they pass through the area and there are bleached croc skeletons all over the place.
This can also be done with buildings. Things built in a swamp would be on stilts because of flooding. Each time they go back, the buildings are harder to get into, needing stairs or even ladders. Also reference all the dying vegetation.
My rule of thumb for mystery-heavy campaigns:
Assume all players are Watson; Assume any character can be Sherlock if they roll high enough numbers.
^ This.
As for the titans there were going to be five of them all with different domains of power. One that controled the forces of nature, one that controled the different planes. stuff like that. and the most powerful one created the others as well as life on the planet, though i was wanting them to be so ancient and imprisoned for so long that the everything forgot about them.
Okay, that can be worked with pretty easily. Forces of nature can be covered with your marsh; again, make it a memorable place or event. Dealing with the Titan of the Planes, I have a very simple solution, too: Have one of the spots they stop by multiple times in their adventures, if you can, be a temple surrounding a place that was once the site of a portal opening to one of the other planes. (It doesn't have to be a temple persay; it could be a fortess dedicated to keeping Devils out of the Prime, for instance, sort of like how Mendev sits by the Worldwound; or it could just be a druid enclave at a stone circle surrounding a new unfunctional portal to the Fey realm.) Make sure they note the people guarding the portal, whatever form that portal takes, and that it seems odd to have people standing there guarding NOTHING...
...then have them come back one day and have everyone be dead, and have the creatures from the other plane be ravaging the landscape. (Or something. It doesn't have to be violent; but if you go to the familiar, lazy druid grove one day to see a bunch of faeries stealing the druids' prized possessions, that's something. Or, heck, what if a unicorn walked out from the portal and came to the party with a message?) Cue adventure with a big "Well, that's odd" moment. Roll wisdom dice when they notice the open portal for them to say, "Huh, wasn't that closed before?" if you have to. History checks, Arcana checks, The Planes checks can also be used to offer a little insight as to WHY this place was built around the portal in the first place, and could help serve as a hook later.
One thing that I havent yet figured out would be how to introduce that it is the titan's prison weakening that is causing the changes. I want them to be so old that people forgot about them but I want the players to have the possibility of finding out that they are the cause of it before all if any of the titans get out.
The titans don't have to be the only things in the prison. Maybe there's less powerful stuff locked in there with them that can slip out as the prison weakens. Some of those less powerful entities might want the prison to be strengthened, keeping the titans, (who used to rule them) locked away so that the ones who have escaped can rule the mortals of the world. Others might want the prison weakened, releasing the titans, because even though the titans ruled them they shared power with them.
PC's can learn about the situation by interacting with them.
I had thought of something like that but then ran into the issue of if these other things are less powerfull than the Titans how would they be able to escape the prison when its still strong enough to hold the titans.
Well, rats can go in and out of a perfectly adequate tiger cage.
It depends on how you visualize the prison.
I had thought of something like that but then ran into the issue of if these other things are less powerfull than the Titans how would they be able to escape the prison when its still strong enough to hold the titans.
Think of it less in those terms and more like this:
Let's say you have a toy box with a nice, tight lid. You've got one really big toy in the box, but the rest of the toys in there are much, much smaller. Now, the more you use this toy box and the less care it receives, the looser that lid is going to be. If it gets jostled about, smaller toys might fall out, but the big toy won't - not until the lid is ready to come off entirely.
The titan is the big toy. The other creatures are the small toys. The reason the titan can't get out is because he has so much power that he can't get out entirely; he might be able to exert some influence on the world outside his box, but he needs to break the prison to be free. Meanwhile, these less powerful creatures are able to find "cracks" in the prison. They find ways out, partly because whatever systems were designed to keep watch of the titan aren't as well equipped to track all this other various entities. So, they slip out one by one, and as they do, the cracks become bigger and bigger...
...until finally the Titan musters enough power to shatter the cracked prison all at once.
EDIT: Also what Aboniks said. His response was smarter.
...Why did I even think of a toy box? I must have a kid's mentality.
That would be fun. Heck, imagine if your PCs went to sleep one night, then woke up in that Abyss-like area. They'd probably think it was some sort of psychotic dreamstate or something, or that they'd been dragged off by demons; but nope! They're right where they've always been. The demons came to them, and they brought the Abyss with them.
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I have no idea what your player group is like. That said, if they are anything like the jackals I play with they are gonna wanna know all the tech specs of the prison once they find out it exists. They are gonna want to know how it was made, who made it, how much it costs, what feats they have to know to make their own, and how can they install one back in capital city and run it for profit. As a DM you don't want the back half of that to happen, so some ready answers for the questions help. Maybe it was forged by a greater deity with a cost paid in souls by the thousands who all had to willingly and knowingly sacrifice themselves. If your scenario has a lot of internal consistency the players will stay on focus, but if too many things are making them ask questions you can't answer it will bog down.
Think of it less in those terms and more like this:Let's say you have a toy box with a nice, tight lid. ...the Titan musters enough power to shatter the cracked prison all at once.
EDIT: Also what Aboniks said. His response was smarter.
...Why did I even think of a toy box? I must have a kid's mentality.
Originally I had was writing it out as roaches escaping from a crate through the cracks, but I had the TV on. :)
I have no idea what your player group is like. That said, if they are anything like the jackals I play with they are gonna wanna know all the tech specs of the prison once they find out it exists. They are gonna want to know how it was made, who made it, how much it costs, what feats they have to know to make their own, and how can they install one back in capital city and run it for profit.
lol. I think I know those players.
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Two suggestions for clues:
1) If it's a prime piece of the story line, don't hide it, don't even require a roll to get it. Pick the character with the highest appropriate Knowledge skill (or relevant Craft/Profession/Whatever) and just tell them the clue, openly and directly.
2) If they're curious at all, this will lead them to ask more questions. This is where you get more secretive, you have them roll to find things out or play out in game how they search for additional clues. It's up to them to dig up additional information that provides context to the clue or links it to other clues.
If you're interested, I highly recommend getting Trail of Cthulhu and giving it a read. It's a game system that is essentially built on detective stories and is a great source of advice on how to slowly unveil a conspiracy to the players.
As for the "Its so old that nobody remembers it" aspect, think of it like Lord of the Rings (the movie version anyway). You have the opening voice over from Galadriel where she says something along the lines of "And some things that should not have been forgot, were lost". Now obviously, there were characters in the LotR that absolutely knew about the Ring. Heck, one of them had even tried to get it destroyed and was only a few feet away from accomplishing it. Yet, so much time had passed that they simply did not think about it, believing it to have been lost forever.
Now, with respect to the prison, it obviously wouldn't have been "lost forever" so to speak, but it certainly could have slipped from the forefront of everyone's mind -- even the gods.
Now, when things start going awry, presumably the PCs will want to figure out what in the name of Steve is going on. Probably, they will go to the local patron/priest/sage/whatever first. Odds are, that person has no clue. "Gee, um well there be demons coming outta that thing. Must be some sort of portal! Though, don't know why that would cause the marshlands to dry up practically overnight." As the party continues to research, maybe they come across a seemingly random reference to some being (lets call him Ted). Ted apparently was associated with weather. Following up on the name of Ted eventually reveals that he was a Titan, but hasn't been heard from in eons. Etc., etc.
In other words, the PCs will be able to start to piece together little clues and gradually garner bits and pieces of information. Each piece is like a piece of a puzzle and they have to look into increasingly obscure lore and libraries in order to gather all the information they need.