Wastelands

## Description

One of the most inhospitable climates in Andora, the Wastelands lies on the border of Blueridge and Navarre. Tall mountainous regions and deep valleys litter the stretch of the region, and a constant barrage of the elements awaits travelers willing to traverse its hostile terrain. With icy winds and scorching heat battering the lands constantly, temperatures fluctuate at varying degrees. Nearly entirely void of living organisms, the area is particularly desolate; its barren landscapes closer to a scar on the land than an environment.

Despite the hostility of the Wastelands, a brave few dare to tread the lands. By majority, these folks tend to be smugglers, willing to risk traveling through the wastes for the anonymous transit of their goods. As traveling through the Wastelands would be a taxing ordeal, the benefits could almost outweigh the danger to a smuggler who needs their goods shrouded in secrecy. However, it is due to this reason that the Wastelands have over time become home to roving bandit gangs, ones that survive solely on the smuggler caravans that occasionally decide to traverse the region.

Thus, despite the rigorous climate changes, despite the barren landscape, and despite all odds, life prevails in the region.

## Environment

While the landscape across the wastelands tends to be very similar from place to place, there are a small degree of differences depending on where you find yourself.

### **Mountains**

For the vast majority of the landscape, tall, stony, gray mountains litter the landscape. Peaks stretch into the sky, and steep cliffs make navigation a nightmare. The sole respite within these mountains lies along thin ridges, one of the few means of traveling through the expansive mountain range.

However, many obstacles fall upon travelers willing to risk traveling along these ridges. Steep drop offs lead to valleys below, spelling certain death for those who might slip. On top of this, travelers also face environmental consequences. Heavy winds, passing through the mountain peaks, batter unsuspecting travelers. To make matters even worse, constantly varying temperatures can cause the snow caps lining the mountains to loosen, meaning avalanches are a constant fear while upon these paths.

Luckily, for those traveling the mountains, there are very few times where clear paths lead between the regions. More often than not, travelers can find respite within the various caverns lining the ridges passing through the region. However, while these caverns provide brief respite from the environmental hazards, they are not without their own dangers.

### **Caverns**

Speckled along the mountainous regions, formed thanks to vast supplies of water pouring off the mountains during the constant heating and cooling environment, caverns are not uncommon within the Wastelands. These landscapes tend to be a blessing for weary travelers, as many exist as landmarks, offering a chance to get out of the chilling frosty winds and scorching rays. Though temperature becomes less of an issue, navigation and safety becomes threatening.

More often than not, these caverns are not sprawling landscapes. Travelers in the Wastelands won’t find large echoing caves, nor tall rocky ceilings. Instead, the caves in the region tend to be very tight, With tiny corridors that would require a crawl to pass through. This is less of a rule and more of an average, as notable caverns such as the Screaming Chasms do exist. However, while the caverns within the Wastelands tend to be tight, they are plentiful. Corridors within these caves spread for long stretches; twisting paths lead to forks and interconnected rooms quickly. Many of the mentioned caves tend to have patches that open up to other mountain ridges, portions that drop to the lower level valleys, and large stretches of vertical drops. The numerous caverns provide a challenge to those attempting to navigate the area, and a strong memory and quality equipment could mean the difference between getting lost in the dark and surviving the passage.

Even without the difficulties associated with navigation, the caverns themselves are still treacherous. With the frequently shifting temperatures outside of the caves, snowfall often melts, turning into flooding. When such happens, water floods into the caverns, making the stone slippery, and adding the difficulty of flooded areas, rushing waters capable of sweeping people off their feet, and sudden and deadly cave-ins. Freezing waters can cause previously passable areas to become cut off, and such sudden changes make for trapped or stranded folks.

However, travelers are not alone within the caverns of the Wastelands. As the battering temperature changes would prove deadly to even the most prepared life forms, the caves provide a much more hospitable existence, and have over time become home to roving bandit gangs, waiting to ambush those who will inevitably find themselves within the area.

As could be expected, the inhospitable lands of the Wastelands have proven challenging to live within. This is no exception for the local bandits, but they have learned to overcome the hazards and maintain a just-barely thriving form of life within the region. In order to maintain this society, strict hierarchies combat reckless behaviors, and local leaders have learned to make even the most difficult decisions through sheer necessity. The bandits utilize supplies carried by the travelers in the region to maintain their existence, and in the worst times relying on the local, magically-inclined individuals to survive.

The mentioned gangs operate in different ways, but knowledgeable navigators have gradually begun to label the gangs as either Blue or Red, based on the relative danger associated with them. Blue gangs tend to be “peaceful” with travelers, realizing the necessity to trade with some of the travelers passing by. Often, this comes down to a safety in numbers sort of dynamic, and they tend to trade more often with larger groups of people passing through, choosing instead to prey upon the smaller groups. Blue gangs typically find more value in trade goods, keeping supplies to maintain their lifestyle, but also taking high value items like art, minerals and gems, and gold, which they often trade away to future traveling merchants and smugglers.

Unlike the Blue gangs though, Red Gangs are much more ferocious. Often labeled as barbaric, bloodthirsty, or savage, these gangs attack travelers indiscriminately. They value supplies as most important, taking food and water, clothing, and occasionally weapons should the need arise. Sites of attacks are often found with materialistic goods like gold and jewelry left behind, sitting on the ground. While they tend to live solely off of necessities, this often isn’t enough, and many members of these gangs have fallen to unspeakable and inhumane acts such as exiling individuals, or worse,  in order to stay alive. These stories fuel the heinous rumors about the gangs.

Ultimately, the local thieves of the Wastelands are not to be taken lightly. They are extremely intelligent, a trait necessary to survive in the first place, and are not adverse to even the most cruel forms of trapping, ambushes, or other similar acts if it means survival. Despite their rugged form of lifestyle, bandit gangs in the region are still human. While they normally live within larger caverns or secluded valleys, their bases are always hidden well off the beaten trail traveled by the individuals passing through. These bases tend to be built with scrap wood, stolen from trade caravans, and pieced together. The shabby homes are often built on rickety scaffolding, lifting the homes well off the floor to avoid the freezing ground and occasional floods.

### **Valleys**

At the base of many of the mountains lies one of the most treacherous regions of the Wastelands. Home to many of the most hostile environmental hazards that the Wastelands has to offer, this area ends up as a severe obstacle to travelers within the region. Between flash freezes, scorching rays, constant floods, shifting environments, long stretches of frozen ice, and heavy winds, travel is constantly hampered while travelers are in frequent peril. As the valleys are devoid of plant life, very little stands as protection against the elements. Typically, travelers avoid valleys as much as possible, as maintaining a caravan becomes incredibly difficult when travelers need to adjust their clothing multiple times an hour, or when heavy floods or hail cause disarray and otherwise difficult terrain.

Though sometimes travel through the valleys is inevitable. Many landmarks that navigators use to guide themselves can be found littered throughout the mostly-flat valleys. While the freezing grounds may shift as temperatures rise and fall, statues and large rocks remain embedded in the ice where they landed long ago. Such marks exist now as a lifeline for would-be travelers, as they remain one of the few unchanging portions of the landscape.

To say that the landscape changes daily would be an understatement. Avalanches and flood waters pour from the mountains above frequently, adding matter to the already frozen wastes below. Much of this water eventually flash freezes, turning into hills and sheets of frozen ice. Travelers have short windows of time to walk across said landscapes before the temperatures change once more, potentially drowning said travelers, or even worse, slowly freezing them in place.

Strangely, the constantly freezing environment makes for a great preservation of remains, and it is not uncommon to find nearly untouched remains of individuals who fell from the ridges above. Such an occurrence is usually seen as a bad omen for those who witness it.

## Notable Locations

A few locations have become notorious amongst the Wastelands. These names haunt the minds of individuals who have passed through the areas, either due to superstitions, or just the sheer danger involved with the areas. Though this isn’t always the case, occasionally some of the more famous sites could just be thanks to a degree of safety involved with staying nearby.

### **Screaming Chasms**

Located in one of the larger valleys of the Wastelands, the Screaming Chasms could be one of the better known locations within the area. The cave system, nearly always flooded and with constant winds battering the interior of the caverns, has resulted in a notorious whistling that ends up as the hallmark of the site. Those who have frequented the area have come to see this sound, which echoes loudly across the valley, as an omen of sorts, with high pitched shrills indicating rough times ahead.
The cause of the noise appears to be natural, as the cave system travels deep under the ground. A large chute of stone causes the sound effect, as wind traveling through the many entrances to the cavern speeds up or slows down based on the relative level of flooding within the caves.

Travel within the cavern is nearly impossible at certain times, as much of the interior tends to fill with water during floods. While some bandits and creatures have seen this as an opportunity to create beaver dam-like entrances to their hideouts, most tend to avoid any degree of travel beneath the water surface.