When the Queen Sinister banished rainfall from the Shrouded Lands, almost all life fled this torrid plain. Today, those who trudge through the sands may hear the songs of the creatures that remain. Ghouls gather here in great packs. Here, far from anything shaped by humans, their illusions are potent. They are fond of serenading their prey before gorging themselves. The sad lows and growls of Abbalah-Doon’s outcast gnolls are more likely to inspire melancholy than fear. Nekh, a race of vultures that claims the desert form screeching, cawing choruses as they glide on thermals from the Breath of the Earth. The Breath of the Earth’s tainted moisture nourishes the Forest of Abominations, a putrid cactus forest filled with creatures that even Nekh hesitate to eat.
The Singing Wastes hold many secrets. Somewhere in this badland, Grandfather Cactus presides over a pristine valley. Elsewhere, a hermit dwells in a bird god’s skull. Legends of Zaal, an elf city built from the dreams of mortals, place it somewhere deep within this trackless waste. An oasis cradles the remnants of a prehistoric ocean, saturated with salt that will nullify a man’s greatest passion.
The Tantalus Mountains, the Scent Barrier, and the Jeweled City, Jahur, lie in the east. Jahur’s jewel-laden caravans still cross the Burning Lands. The trade brings wealth to its Viceroys even as the city slides into drug addiction, heresy and cephalopedic influence. Despite its decadence, Jahur remains the Shrouded Lands’ greatest seaport, and ships from faraway lands moor in its harbor. Janissaries, constructs that are relics of an imperial past, defend the city with zeal. A wise, mysterious concubine named Isane the Beauty enchants and enlightens those who seek her counsel.
Hex summary:
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08.27 (Zaal): the home of elven exiles. Handsome men are hauled up its basalt walls on ropes of elven hair and are never seen to leave.
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09.29 (The Dune Walker): a mysterious wanderer ages those he kisses.
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11.27 (The Mound of Yend): this huge boulder is of obscure origin, and toxic to plant life.
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11.28 (The Ghoul-Haunted Ruins): A morbidly obese ghoul presides over a ruined city populated with ghouls and hyenas.
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11.32 (Skeleton of a Great Bird, Sunken in Sand): an enormous avian skeleton and a hermit who makes it his home.
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12.28 (The Breath of the Earth): a great sinkhole in which the vulture creatures called Nekh congregate.
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12.29 (The Least Ocean): this remnant of a prehistoric ocean contains salt that kills passion.
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13.28 (The Red-Stained Altar): a broken idol to the Bergolasti god of wine provides a safe haven from monstrous Yends.
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13.30 (The Tomb of the Giggling Ghoul): the home of a ghoul who is now kept in a gilded cage in Jahur.
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14.23 (The Colossal Wreck): the crash site of a giant balloon is patrolled by flesh golems.
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14.27 (Ogo Tassak, the Temple of the Hunt): above ancient ruins, gnolls and vulture men perform rites to bring game to these wasted lands.
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15.28 (Abbalah-doon, Village of Outcasts): the gnolls are this village are using more welcoming than those of the Burning Lands.
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17.30 (Cradle of Fire Centipedes): the home of the fire centipedes that have been weaponized by the men of Jahur.
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18.28 (Canyon of the Cactogre): Grandfather Cactus is not pleased with the theft of his nymph.
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19.30 (The Spire of Idjit): a living storm has been chained to a tower here.
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19.31 (Jahur): an ancient city, well past its peak, but still one of the greatest centers of humanity in these lands.
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20.32 (Abyss of Prism Crabs): not all diamonds are mined; some are plucked from the backs of abyssal crabs by madmen driving lobster-like apparatuses.
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21.27 (The Dismal Mine): the duergar that live here are humorless, but what is one to expect from dwarves for whom alcohol is poisonous?
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21.29 (The Scent Barrier): a network of geysers that form a pungent deterrent to gnolls from the east.
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23.32 (Kraken’s Beak Isles): the home of the octopi’s whose Cephalopedic Emperor once conquered Jahur.
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25.31 (Pilgrim’s Spire): the mountain home of monks that learn how to spet through shadows when not trying to get themselves petrified.
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26.33 (Bucket Kelp Forest): once of the few things that can bring people to enjoy accordion music is this synesthesia-inducing narcotic.
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Gnolls: Relatively civilised, matriarchal gnolls with their own city and bard college, but still violent and barbaric, dwelling primarily in the Burning Lands.
