The Wastes can be beautiful. Here the land is toxic: slowly corrosive to the touch, causing illness and death with prolonged contact. The bubbling sulfur and ectomass pools (HellPits too) are especially lovely, if you have the right aesthetic. The soil is soft and any heavy object slowly sinks. If it was not for the special resources here (dyes, alchemical elements, resins, Grimrock, Verner glands, etc), it would be a place that no one would come.
"...The spider did win, but his victory was short lived. The Crawler came down from the rocks above and killed him, then eating the Waste Spider, The Rat, and the small bit of jerky that I started this battle royal with. " Exerpt: A Prospector’s Tale, VOL XXIII Blue Guild Press
"It was another beautiful sunset in the wastes. In the distance I could see an entire meadows worth of plants sliding to a safer place for the night." Exerpt: A Prospector’s Tale, VOL XXIII Blue Guild Press
"...I watched in morbid fascination as the Spider and the Rat circled each other. Soon one would be dead. My silver was on the Spider crawling away from this fight. ..." Exerpt: A Prospector’s Tale, VOL XXIII Blue Guild Press
"Just when I thought it could not get any hotter, we cleared the crest of a small hollow. There was the most magnificent sight, a huge shadey tree hidden in the depression. It must of been there for decades for I had never seen a Drooping Tree that large before and in my decades of prospecting since," Exerpt: A Prospector’s Tale, VOL XXIII Blue Guild Press
A strange sight of the wastes, long green streamers pinned to the sky floating on the wind.
The Wastes are never silent. There is always a baleful music on the wind.
From their home, the winds high above the desolate lands below, these giant winged creatures strike silently and sure.
The toxic lands of the Wastes should support no life. Here the land is slowly corrosive to the touch, causing illness with prolonged contact. The bubbling sulfur and ectomass pools are especially lovely, if you have the right aesthetic. The soil is soft and any heavy object slowly sinks. Other than a few migrant birds and some exotic small insects, The Wastes support only one native lifeform - The Verners - Exerpt from the often wrong but very popular Kalemandi’s Beasts of Lore and World.
Carnous is the famous Boardwalk city, built upon the toxic lands of The Wastes. Here the land is slowly corrosive to the touch, causing illness with prolonged contact. Carnous is a wooden city that is never stationary and always growing.
While traversing the tractless deserts of Shezmu, the pc's come across a travelling caravan led by Vual, the Demon-Camel, the Lord of Lust, the Thrice-Humped...Vual is cursed to only be able to assume one form outside the Abyss, that of a rather large, golden-skinned three-humped camel,with a frog-like, black, barbed tongue......
Vual is the demonic manifestation of Lust...his followers, a cult of truly disturbed individuals, engage in bizarre orgies, travelling the desert towns, "entertaining" the desert folk with their perverse antics...
Vual's Rapture is what the cultists call their monthly festival, where they perform perverse rites to honor Vual...ofcourse folk come from great distances to witness the festivals, despite themselves, and the Cult of Vual welcomes all...
Surprisingly for such a hideous creature, Vual has the power to beguile and charm with his magical voice. His voice will always sound to pcs as the voice of the person they most desire...his followers also gain this ability slowly over time...
When the pc's meet with Vual, he tries to seduce them into joining his cult. If for whatever reason the pc's resist..well then... Vual would probably kill them for sport, as a lesson for those who "resist Vual's love"....
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"I have to give the creature credit. After it stood its ground for a bit, it charged me. Sure I outweighed it by nearly 100 stones, but that would not deter it. I almost didn’t have the heart to kill it." Exerpt: A Prospector’s Tale, VOL XXIV Blue Guild Press