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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Electric Wizard" data-source="post: 6050361" data-attributes="member: 83982">Breath of the Earth (12.28)While ghouls and gnolls compete for the Singing Waste's rocks and sand, the Nekh rule the skies. The Nekh are a matriarchal race of large vultures blessed with intelligence and an extra set of talons, which they use to craft tools and wield sophisticated bone javelins. Eroded effigies of Nekh dot the Singing Waste, giving some credit to their claim that they ruled the land before the Queen Sinister banished the rains. Most outsiders are loathe to believe this. Their songs - swelling choruses of croaks, clicks and squawks that shake all but the gnolls and ghouls, are a crucial part of Singing Waste's cacophony.The most powerful Nekh tribe builds its rookies in the center of the Singing Waste, atop the sand-blasted spires near the Breath of the Earth. The Breath of the Earth is the Shrouded Lands' only charted leyline of air. Gnome geomancers assert that it begins deep beneath Thring and winds south until it surfaces in the massive sinkhole that gives it its name. The Breath of the Earth blows a constant, warm wind that the Nekh use to soar high above the desert. The sinkhole is at least a mile deep - even on the brightest days, it is rarely possible to see the bottom. The wind carries a modicum of moisture that allows cacti and scrub to survive.The Nekh, despite their hideous appearance and appalling hygiene, are not cruel or arbitrary like elves or gnolls. They simply demand tribute from anyone who enters their territory. In their minds, they are scions of an empire that includes everything from the Sea of Typhoons to the Devil's Fingers and the Tantalus Mountains to the Cornfields. Tribute could include elephants, night cattle or magic items. Those who fail to pay are harried to death, then eaten.Hooks-A wizened Nekh sorceress, Shnutu, dwells atop the desert's highest spiral. Rumors says she was a mentor to both Severard of the Seven Circles and Yaegha Six-Kidneys. She knows the languages of every flying thing, and the  many winds. Those who survive the climb to her rookery may learn her secrets.-As proud as they are, the Nekh fear the things lurking in the Breath's shadows. Clawed, armored beasts scour the rocks at night, mutilating any creature they can overwhelm. Many ghosts, benign and terrible, escape the underworld through the cave mouth.-What relationship do the Nekh have with the Singing Waste's ghouls and gnolls?</blockquote>

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