The
Ashed Lands
Up until 3901CA, the Great Green Expanse was considered the
realm of Sylph’s people. Collectively known as the Races
of the Green, the Sylphian peoples strove to live in peace
with nature and to either pacify of drive out the spirit beasts
in their home. In the decades before the end, the Green Expanse
even opened up trade with its neighbors in Callen and Chordin.
Peace and prosperity was on he horizon
for the western nations if not for the fanatics of Denaii
in Calderia. The Calderians harbored a deep hatred for the
Green Expanse for they felt that it was ruled by inferior
races. For over four centuries, Calderia would move against
Callen, Te’ran and Rizen, chafing at their lack of
ability to strike effectively against the hated Sylphians.
Then, in 3897CA, the Denaiian clergy found
a loophole in their church laws against arcane magic that
allowed them to force slaves to cast teleportation spells
to transport armies into the heart of Sylph’s realm.
Four years of war followed and the Calderians
were on the brink of defeat when their Regents unleashed
on final calamity – a magical force that obliterated
the Green Expanse and most of the Races of the Green. The
Expanse became a fetid, hateful wasteland, full of twisted,
baleful magic and monsters beyond the awareness of men.
Today, the Ashed Lands are a festering
wound in the landscape, boiling with malevolence and poison.
Clouds of choking ash bluster across the landscape, infused
with wasting sickness. The monsters that live here are immune
to both the ash and the toxic water that bubbles out of
the ground – they are also unlike any monster the
rest of Ere has ever seen.
Few sane people venture into the Ashed
Lands and even fewer make it out of them alive. Occasionally,
treasure hunters will attempt forays into the blighted landscape
to seek out ancient Sylphian strongholds; but most often
prospectors enter seeking to poach rare and valuable resources
from the Ashed Lands such as ash glass. No matter what reason
they have to enter the Ashed Lands, all must face the terrors
that dwell there as well as the environment itself.
Ashed
Lands Hazards
Ash Clouds
Forming as often as fog banks do on the rest of the continent,
ash clouds are low, clinging banks of black particles that
severely limit visibility and accumulate in the lungs and
eyes, irritating both and eventually suffocating those trapped
within them for too long.
Ash clouds blanket areas up to two miles
in diameter, mostly along hills and at the foot of cliffs.
Creatures within an ash cloud are treated as if in an area
of heavy fog. The cloud irritates the eyes and lungs, causing
all creatures not native to the Ashed Lands to suffer a
-2 penalty to attacks and AC from their stinging eyes and
requiring them the make a Fortitude save (DC 20) every round
or become nauseated for one round. Creature caught in the
cloud can attempt to hold their breath to avoid the nauseating
effect.
A creature nauseated by the effect of an
ash cloud for ten rounds within a ten minute period become
paralyzed until they are removed from the ash cloud.
| Sidebar:
Monsters in the Ashed Lands
When deciding what monsters live in the Ashed
Lands, it is suggested that the DM use creatures
of exceptionally bizarre and monstrous anatomy
that have very little place in the surrounding
ecologies on the rest of the continent.
Achaierai,
ettins, chaos beasts, athachs, digesters, and
manticores are all excellent choices to be Ashed
Lands denizens as they don’t generally
appear elsewhere on Ere. When in doubt, the
DM is encourage to create their own monsters
to populate the Ashed Lands. |
|
Monsters
The
creatures that inhabit the Ashed Lands are either native
species that have been transformed by the toxic environment,
or twisted remnants of the unique creatures that used to
call the Green Expanse home. Most of these are aberrations
and magical beasts not native to Ere.
All
of these creatures are somehow mystically tasked with a
drive to leave the Ashed Lands and consume or destroy everything
they come across thereafter. Even the local plant life is
often animated and lashes out to attack non-Ashed Lands
natives with eerie intent.
Toxic Water
All water not brought into the Ashed Lands is toxic and
undrinkable. A creature can attempt to choke down the caustic
stuff with a DC15 Fortitude save, but doing requires another
Fortitude saving throw (DC 20) to avoid taking 1d6 Constitution
damage.
The Ashed Lands naturally taint water left
out in the open, transforming all water exposed to the elements
or even to light into the same toxic poison as the rest
of the water in the area within five minutes. Only water
enclosed in an opaque container is safe to drink.
Purify food and drink has no effect on
this taint and create water creates water just as tainted
as water that occurs naturally in the Ashed Lands. Strangely,
the taint disappears instantly when taken out of the Ashed
Lands, becoming fresh and good tasting within seconds.
Wasting Cloud
Wasting clouds are more virulent versions of ash clouds.
They form around areas that were once population centers
– Elfholmes, fey glens, and even giant insect hives.
A wasting cloud is rarely larger than one hundred feet in
diameter. There is no known way to distinguish an ash cloud
and a wasting cloud.
All the effects of an ash cloud are in
effect in a wasting cloud. In addition, creatures who become
paralyzed by the effects of this cloud must make a Will
saving throw (DC 20) every round or take 1 Charisma drain.
Creatures reaching 0 Charisma from this drain become Ash
Transfigured creatures; losing all memory of what they once
were and seeking only to spread the taint of the Ashed Lands
beyond its borders.
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