Detailed Description of "Secrets of the Wasting Shores"
The book starts with the author’s short introduction of himself and his origins in Aeneira. He came to live in the Strandlands at an early age. He was an adventurer and avid explorer. He loved the coastal deserts of the Strandlands, so he made the region his home later in life.
The first chapter of the of the book gives an overview of the Strandlands and its unique wildness. The lands are considered to be highly diverse with both mundane and monstrous life. Most of the Strandlands deserts are considered temperate in climate. However, the coastal desert known as the Graven Wastes
(1) and the wild shrublands known as The Wrathful Territory are (somewhat) subtropical due to the hotter weather patterns that are formed over the southerly half of the Karmine Sea.
The second chapter is specific to the Wasting Shores from the edge of the Eldermounts in the north to the Heltian Cliffs in the south, as well as both Hart Island and Radosal Island. The author goes into great detail about the coastal desert’s flora and fauna, as well as hidden caves along the shoreline and old ruins that exist in the Wasting Shores that date from before 0 N.C.
(2) The largest of these is a rumoured lost city that once sat in the centre of the desert roughly 30 miles from the shoreline. The author notes that these ruins are close to the Town of Laphas. (Stratesus’ notes in the margin that Laphas is ruined in his time; the victim of some sort of plague.)
Chizoba also mentions an ancient ruin of unknown origin that exists near a wanderer’s camp
(3) near where the Wasting Shores end and the Thunderback Badlands begin. The author believed the ruins were over a thousand years old, but Stratesus scoffed at such an idea. The Hermit dated the Wandering Ruin as being closer to 200 N.C., but he does note that ruins are quite mysterious. The ruins seem to shift location in the rocky wastes – never appearing in the same place twice. Stratesus and the other Boots considered the Wandering Ruin to be extremely dangerous.
The next three chapters detail the Dryrot Shrublands, the Eldermounts, and the Thunderback Badlands southwest of Wasting Shores. Chizoba only gives and overview of the Dryrot Shrublands, but The Hermit has filled the chapter’s margins with tons of notations about the shrublands and the Windless Mountains northwest of the Dryrot. Chizoba considered the interior regions to be less than remarkable, but Stratesus praised their hidden diversity, especially regarding monstrous vermin and secretive monstrous humanoids. Chizoba was more impressed with both the Eldermounts and the Thunderback Badlands. He praised the mineral wealth of the Eldermounts, and the ranger had hoped to lay claim to the Elderspire in the future
(4). The Eldermounts are filled with dwarven mining camps and there is a shrine dedicated to Davek
(5) that sits in a cacti grove just west of the mountain range’s surrounding hills. This shrine existed in Stratesus’ time as well. Chizoba praised the incredible diversity of the Thunderback Badlands and attributed the regions incredible natural wonders to the protection of the Majestic Blue Dragon of the Thunder Lands, which the badlands are named after. He makes note of the ruins known as Filthil; the primary
stain of evil in the region. The ranger also makes note of a strange structure known as the Twisting Tower
(6), which might have been the home of a mage at one point. He mentions a 100-ft. tall stone statue of a warrior that sits on a high hill just west of the badlands.
The next chapter is a catchall for the more southerly deserts and wastelands of the region. This includes the coastal deserts near the southern mountain range known as the Spraymounts. These deserts have various names including the Desert by Blackwater, the Firewind Hills, and the Spraying Wastes. The chapter also includes overviews of both the Graven Wastes and the Wrathful Territory. Chizoba considers the former to be less diverse than the northern coastal deserts (and too hot for his liking) and the latter to be a frightening place filled with ghosts and ghouls. The ranger makes note of a strange towering spire known as the Jarmjiran Tower, which sits in a small isolated desert in the northwestern part of the territory.
The last chapter is about the Grave Wastes and was completely written by Stratesus and put into the end of the book when it is was repaired and bound into The Hermit’s revised tome. Chizoba barely mentions the haunted desert and avoided it nearly completely. It frightened him more than the Wrathful Territory. Stratesus noted that the original author had good reason to be afraid of the desert. It is a harsh desert that tends to get hotter than it should. It is filled with some of the most dangerous creatures found in the Strandlands coastal deserts, including not only strange (and often huge) monstrous vermin and oversized dire animals, but also hidden aberrations, isolationist monstrous humanoids, and vicious undead.
He goes into great detail about the coastal desert, but doesn’t mention the ruined Temple of Bogphin. (He only wrote about the temple in his personal journal.) He writes with great fondness of the cacti valley, which he calls the Thornscrub and its many unique, and often bizarre, creatures that defy explanation. One such creature he calls a Byraiol that is half animal, half plant. He considers it to be a unique creature found only in the Thornscrub. He also discovered a wondrous hot spring in the heart of the cacti forest with incredible healing properties. He named it after his goddess.
He notes an old stone structure that he calls Ralix’s Cross. Evil denizens of the Grave Wastes often use it to punish their enemies. He discovered a massive oasis on top of a large plateau, which is used by all the peoples of the desert. It is considered to be sacred ground and a neutral site for resolving disputes. Most call it the Grand Oasis. There are dozens of other oases scattered throughout the Grave Wastes, but most of them are contested and several of them are polluted by evil that never seems to fade.
Stratesus notes that desert is home to a wide variety of humanoids and their, often, monstrous rivals. Almost all of these peoples are isolationist and don’t consider themselves to be part of the Strandlands. The bulk of the humanoids live by the shore and survive by fishing and digging for water. The monstrous humanoids tend to wander the desert in small bands; they survive by raiding each other and the humanoids of the coast. The most dangerous monstrous humanoids of the desert are dune hags.
The most common creatures of the Grave Shores include bugbears, camels, crucians, diprotodons, dire jackals, dire wolves & dire pumas, ghouls, giant banded lizards, humans (bandits or fishers), monstrous vermin (especially giant ant lions), sand hunters, scorpion & spider swarms, and tumbling mounds. The more dangerous creatures of the coastal desert include death scarab swarms, dune hags, dunewinders, forlorn husks, ghasts, ironthorns, wasteland trolls, and at least one gargantuan thunderbird.
Stratesus includes a special section at the end of the last chapter about the Wicked Hills. He goes into great detail about how the hills exist behind a magical barrier known as Angrboda’s Crossing, which is an area roughly 8 miles in diameter. It is possible to cross this barrier without difficulty, but once on the other side, travellers have moved into a unique demiplane that exists beyond the natural world. Light is muted in the demiplane and undead are a real menace to the living
(7). The sky is always overcast.
At the centre of the demiplane are the Wicked Hills themselves, which are surrounded by blighted marshlands, twisted forests, and deadly undying mountain peaks. These lands are considered cursed and travelling through them is extremely hazardous. Encounters with undead and other evil creatures are frequent and often frightening. While in the hills themselves, there is always a constant sense of being watched.
In the centre of the Wicked Hills is the Shrine of Utter Evil. Stratesus writes that the shrine is considered sacred to numerous dark gods including not only Angrboda, but also the Interloper god known as Kovzeasz, as well as at least three other deities known as Rune, Vokaron, and Zenar
(8). The followers of Malotoch had only recently become enamoured with the shrine in his time period. He and the other leaders of the Boots debated for many years regarding trying to destroy the shrine and/or severe the demiplane’s connection to the Material Plane. In the end, they did not consider it worth the risk. They worried the dark gods would seek vengeance against not only them, but also all of the Thunder Lands. It was not a war they believed they could win, especially with the ogre scions and their allies making war across most of the continent.
DM’s Note: I could write more but it is 3 a.m. I must stop now and go to sleep.
- The Graven Wastes should not be confused with the Grave Shores. The former is south of the City of Blackwater while the latter is north of The Eldermounts near the Sunswept Cliffs. The Graven Wastes are often referred to as the Windcarved Coast. The coastal desert is considered to be separate from the Strandlands in the current year.
- Unlike our real world accounting of time where there is no Year 0, the Land of Harqual’s New Calendar does have a 0 N.C.
- This camp is known as the Encampment of the Desert Sun in the current year. It is a major stopping over point between the Elderspire in the north and the City of Helt in the south. (It is closer to Helt.)
- While it is uncertain who built the Elderspire, it is generally accepted that the tower is quite ancient. It has existed since before 0 N.C. and could be ancient. However, the structure has been damaged, ruined, and rebuilt (as well as bought and sold) so many times that the current Elderspire barely resembles the Elderspire that Chizoba describes. Stratesus notes that the Elderspire is hotly contested in his time with major skirmishes being fought over it. In the current day, the tower belongs to the ruling senate of the Strandlands. It is manned constantly during the Spring and Summer months, but it is boarded up during the Fall and Winter (with only a handful of soldiers to keep it out of the hands of brigands).
- Davek is my newly created homebrewed replacement for Dumathoin. The shrine is noted on the Crow God Overview map as the Shrine of Dumathoin.
- Thunderback does not like adventurers going near the tower without his permission. Stratesus noted this in his time.
- All undead, even mindless undead, have +2 turning resistance in the demiplane. Light sources (even magical ones) only provide dim illumination up half their normal radius.
- Kovzeasz is my homebrewed replacement for the v.3.5 deity Konkresh. Rune, Vokaron, and Zenar are my homebrewed replacements for Mulketh, Tharizdun, and Balador.
