At the western edge of the Endless Desert of Terra Incognita, there were hills. The hills, washed by the sparse melt from the Dragon Spine mountains, were comparably lush, with spare, arid trees and sticky, stingy shrubs dotting the rolling landscape alongside grasses of gold and occasional patches of thorny flowers. It was a relative belt of fertile green often lost in the shadowy twilight of the great mountains to the west, trapped between those and the craggy ground that announced the beginnings of a thousand miles of endless, shifting sand. Here even the wind died down and found a more pleasant countenance, protected as it was by the snowy peaks above.
In one moment, the sandy, obscure airs over the dunes were empty...and in the next, the form of a woman could be seen, walking steadily westward to emerge from the dunes at last. Tall for a nomad and perhaps overly thin, she wore a curious western corset covered by the rags of a once-proud dress. The skirts of her dress had long since been torn away from her thighs, the fabrics now wrapped around her feet, hands, and face, the last of which formed an imperfect shoufa to protect her face from the worst of the desert's attacks. Behind her were endless miles of nothing...and before her was a wall more impressive than anything she had ever imagined.
Great Western Mountains, thought Amica, reaching up to pull her shroud down. Scanning with her eyes northward, she followed the breath-taking spine south...following the majestic horizon all the way down until her eyes were scanning southward. To the south, Dragon's Keep...perhaps not too far...but her last best guess placed Aeis' lair somewhere along the mountain range to the north. I cannot find Aeis' lair without a guide, she realized. Indeed, she would need a new talisman...but she could fashion a new talisman anywhere. What she really needed before she would chase down the Dragon of Wind was a coat.
The desert had been harsh, for deserts were so very dry. But it was the cold that had nearly driven Amica to exposure, for without water, the nights were as cold as the days were hot. And with the waning seasons, the nights became frighteningly cold, with her own oasis often freezing by morning's first light. It had become to cold she had taken to moving at night, for she feared if she were to sleep in such condition, she would not wake.
And so, Amica would have to barter her way into the proper equipment for the mountains. There would be no better place to find such equipment than Dragon's Keep...where the People were known and often bartered for goods.Turning her feet southward, she would skirt the Eastern edge of the Dragon Spine mountains southward until she came across infamous Dragon Spine pass, the gateway to the wet lands beyond.
The Edge of the World (Chryil 22nd)
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Dragon's Keep occupied a strategic position at the mouth of the Dragon Spine pass, that the Westerners called the Fire Canyon, before it wound its way up between the high mountains and through into the Border Estates of the Western Kingdom. While ostensibly guarding the border of the Kingdom, the castle was in fact fortified in all directions - including fortifications designed to protect it from attack from above, a terrifyingly frequent occurrence in the remote fortress. It also served as a staging point for patrols that regularly swept the Fire Canyon itself for dangerous creatures descended from the mountain peaks. Unless one was accompanied by experienced gnomish or dwarven guides, the Canyon was the only passable route between the Western Kingdom and the desert lands beyond for hundreds of miles in either direction, and as such it was economically vital for it to be kept open.
The massive five-storey keep itself, and the great murky Lake Draz-Olgraith that lay at its foot, were visible a few days' travel in most directions. Although Dragon's Keep was originally a strictly military outpost, two semi-permanent villages were in the process of growing up around it. The first, stretching out to the west of the keep along the road, was mostly stone-built, due to the paucity of good wood in the area, although the standard of construction was low. The second was composed of the black tents of the People of the Sands and lay in the green fields surrounding the lake. Amica would have heard the legend of the great Draz-Olgraith, and how the beast finally fell to earth in its death throes, creating a great crater which filled up with water over time. The story had it that the bones of the beast still rested at the bottom of the lake, and that, on a clear and calm night, the silvery light reflecting from the surface was not the moon but rather the dragon's skull. All in all, the lake was feared by most of the People, but evidently not by the tribesmen and women who had made it their home for trade with the affluent Westerners.
To the East, in the basin of fertile land in the foothills, various caravan routes converged into one well-worn and rutted road that curved past the southern end of the lake before passing the castle and rising rapidly into the mountains proper. All paths on the West Terra Continent ultimately led the traveller past Dragon's Keep. The sun itself was making its way down behind the ramshackle collection of settlements as it began to set in the West on eveningtide of the 22nd of Chyril, 1225.
The massive five-storey keep itself, and the great murky Lake Draz-Olgraith that lay at its foot, were visible a few days' travel in most directions. Although Dragon's Keep was originally a strictly military outpost, two semi-permanent villages were in the process of growing up around it. The first, stretching out to the west of the keep along the road, was mostly stone-built, due to the paucity of good wood in the area, although the standard of construction was low. The second was composed of the black tents of the People of the Sands and lay in the green fields surrounding the lake. Amica would have heard the legend of the great Draz-Olgraith, and how the beast finally fell to earth in its death throes, creating a great crater which filled up with water over time. The story had it that the bones of the beast still rested at the bottom of the lake, and that, on a clear and calm night, the silvery light reflecting from the surface was not the moon but rather the dragon's skull. All in all, the lake was feared by most of the People, but evidently not by the tribesmen and women who had made it their home for trade with the affluent Westerners.
To the East, in the basin of fertile land in the foothills, various caravan routes converged into one well-worn and rutted road that curved past the southern end of the lake before passing the castle and rising rapidly into the mountains proper. All paths on the West Terra Continent ultimately led the traveller past Dragon's Keep. The sun itself was making its way down behind the ramshackle collection of settlements as it began to set in the West on eveningtide of the 22nd of Chyril, 1225.
[size=84][i]"She told me I had too much to dream last night..."[/i] - [i]Apprentice of the Universe[/i], Pure Reason Revolution
Avatar by [url=http://pixieface.deviantart.com]Liz Green[/url][/size]
Avatar by [url=http://pixieface.deviantart.com]Liz Green[/url][/size]
She would make for a very strange sight in the wetlander settlement. There was little she could do for this, but if gave Amica to feel self-conscious and perhaps somewhat embarrassed as she turned her feet towards the pass that she knew would be here. She had never laid eyes upon it...she did not yet know what the guarrdi called it...but it was the gateway to the wetlands West, a land filled with everything one could want. Wood growing up to a great, proud height...food upon every hill, field, and in every glade, ready to harvest or hunt...water coming in so very many rains or in so very many rivers. It was the kind of land for which people would fight and die, for they need never travel.
The lake...Draz-Olgraith...lived in a few of Amica's oral traditions and songs often sung in remembrance. It was around here she saw the customary tents that were so common among her people...tents made of hide, wool, and yak hair, if her guess was right...and it would be to here she would go, picking her way over the rutted and worn road that would bring her into the little settlement. The lush grounds around the lake reminded Amica of some of the more permanent oasis in the desert...places that seemed like another time or country entirely...and it served to remind her how far she had truly come.
I will gather what I need here, she determined. It should take her no time...perhaps she would have to perform rituals for the locals and attend to their ailments...but soon enough, she would gain the things she needed and be away. Sadly, Amica had no faith that her visit would be so simple.
With wetlanders, nothing was ever "simple".
The lake...Draz-Olgraith...lived in a few of Amica's oral traditions and songs often sung in remembrance. It was around here she saw the customary tents that were so common among her people...tents made of hide, wool, and yak hair, if her guess was right...and it would be to here she would go, picking her way over the rutted and worn road that would bring her into the little settlement. The lush grounds around the lake reminded Amica of some of the more permanent oasis in the desert...places that seemed like another time or country entirely...and it served to remind her how far she had truly come.
I will gather what I need here, she determined. It should take her no time...perhaps she would have to perform rituals for the locals and attend to their ailments...but soon enough, she would gain the things she needed and be away. Sadly, Amica had no faith that her visit would be so simple.
With wetlanders, nothing was ever "simple".