Blood Dunes (The Plain of Rust). This 3 by 4 mile basin at the foot of a canyon winding down from the mountains above is now filled with red-streaked star dunes. Folklore says that this is the blood of warriors killed in an ancient battle, mingling with defilers’ ash. The bones of ancient soldiers are often revealed by the shifting winds…
In truth, the red streaks in this area are rust. Once this basin held a lake; on its shores one of the first major battles of Borys’ war against the dwarves was fought. The dwarves were armored in an ancient style, fully clad in steel plate from helm to boots. They resisted the arrows of the Champion’s archers, and showed enormous morale, standing firm in the face of lightning, fire, and magic missiles hurled by Borys’ defilers. Rather than smashing the more lightly armored troops of his relatively new army into the dwarves’ unyielding line, Borys unleashed his own power, casting a mighty spell that turned the dwarves’ armor and weapons to rust in an instant. Unarmed and unarmored, the dwarves were quickly cut down by Borys’ cruel legion.
The Lake of False Hope: Amid a vast stretch of lifeless stone, a huge body of water (a mile long and half a mile wide) sparkles beneath the crimson sun. This lake was created by an elemental Water gate produced by incredibly powerful defiler magic. However, the land around it was completely defiled in its creation, and there is no life whatsoever in this water - no fish, no insects, not even algae. The barren stones around this lake have no plant life, no food sources even for kanks, within two miles of the shore. While the water is drinkable, the lack of a food source means no one can settle here.
Preservers’ Folly: The strange forest of this valley was created during Athas’ desertification by a misguided and desperate alliance of druids and preservers.
The canopy of this forest is made up of unusual, magically mutated oak trees and bogo trees. The highest branches, which form the uppermost canopy, produce very tough, scale-like leaves, designed to retain water; lower branches produce softer and greener leaves. The understory of the forest is largely composed of palms, ferns, and vines; however, several deadly plants are also abundant. The ground cover is sparse, since the forest’s shade is so complete, but moss grows in many places. The canopy is not especially high, only about 25-30 feet; the mutated trees grow wide rather than high, interlocking branches to provide a complete cover. The understory palms and ferns usually grow no more than 10 feet high.
The first danger upon approaching this forest is from the burstbubble plants, another magical mutation. There is a zone of scrub plain vegetation about half a mile wide between the dense forest and the sands beneath. Burstbubble plants grow thickly among the normal plants of the scrub plain. A burstbubble plant looks like a dome-shaped cactus; but including those parts beneath the ground surface, the plant is almost a complete sphere (up to 4’ diameter).
Burstbubbles are incredibly sensitive to the power draw of arcane magic. If defiler magic is cast within 30 yards/90 feet of a burstbubble (even if the plant is outside any defiling radius), or if preserver magic is cast within 10 yards/30 feet of it, the plant explodes. A cloud of deadly poison gas affects all animal life within 30 yards/90 feet (2E: save vs. poison, failure means death, success inflicts 10 damage; 5E: 10d6 poison damage, Con save DC 15 for half damage).
In the absence of magic, burstbubbles grow up to 4’ diameter, then become detoxified and produce spores. They burst naturally at this size, releasing spores which grow into new plants, rather than poison gas. It takes twenty years for a burstbubble plant to grow from spore to 4’ diameter.
Those who do not cast arcane magic will pass safely through this area. Alternately, the burstbubble plants can be avoided if the valley is approached from the upper end, but this essentially requires flight. The valley of Preservers’ Folly is a box canyon surrounded on three sides by sheer cliffs 500 to 1,200 feet high; these cliffs have razor-sharp ledges that would make any attempt to climb down with a very long rope probably lethal.
At the edge of the forest, a dense curtain of vines separates the sun-scorched scrub plains from the shady forest depths; strangling vines are interwoven thickly with the more normal vines here. Anyone entering the forest will pass within reach of several strangling vines.
Strangling vines also weave through the branches of the canopy trees, seizing and preying upon flying creatures; this means even an entry by flight will not bypass the vine barrier.
Inside the forest itself, bloodvine (see The Ivory Triangle), poisonweed and blossomkillers are commonly found. As one approaches the heart of the forest, the poisonweed becomes more dense, and brain seeds begin to appear.
Over two dozen trees of life, enchanted by the original alliance of druids and preservers, grow in the heart of the forest; but any attempt to tap these trees of life for magical power is deadly. The trees grow about 150 to 200 yards apart, to protect the largest portion of the valley. Each tree is guarded by several brain seeds and by very dense stands of poisonweed; in combination, this makes the heart of Preservers’ Folly the thickest growth of brain seeds anywhere in the known regions of Athas.
