Monsoon Forest

The Monsoon Forest of West Arvel is a large expanse of mangrove forest which cradles the Bay of Timugai. It is a highly seasonal habitat that has high fluctuations between the wet and dry season.

### Expedition Synopsis

  Within the past century, humans from the Assembly have been granted permission to explore beyond the known world under a number of restrictions and regulations, chief among them being no contact with any sentient beings. This is partially a holdover of humans having a reputation as vectors of disease, but the reality is a mild cold to an Earth human could well be a lethal respiratory infection to another human species, so the practice isn’t without merit. As their contacts in the Free States and portal city don’t want to deal with the other nations knowing much about Earth or risking their own disease transmission, the Assembly also must minimize their presence outside of the portal city, Roostercrest Island on which the Assembly has a substantial base and university, and designated research outposts beyond the known world. Firearms in these outposts are permitted but heavily restricted in number and utility: in short, a few weapons that will reliably drop dangerous game, but wouldn’t be much military application if they got into the hands of the Free-State’s rivals. With this small supply of defenses, numerous teams have gone out to conduct censuses over the years, usually using charts and maps from the Great Library as a guide. Although the focus of these missions is often to better understand magic, curiosity at the natural history of Kaimere has also driven numerous expeditions.

   Several such expeditions have taken place in the monsoon forest of western Arvel.

 The first expedition to this place said to be a vibrant forest instead found it to be little more than a desert with a coastal mangrove swamp. Winds blow offshore to the northwest, bringing dry air and sand from the surrounding deserts, making it very difficult for their wind-powered vessels to reach. Several outposts were built on coastal islands. There were records of people living here from Great Library treatises, though it was a long time before any were encountered, and these Homo erectus descendants seemed as keen to avoid the Assembly agents as the agents were to avoid them.

   Although the lands looked barren, the crew quickly noticed that the coastal mangroves and waters of the Bay of Timugai were teeming with life. Currents from the south brought cool nutrient-rich water that supports an abundance of marine life, aided by regular offshore winds pushing out warm water and drawing in cool and nutrient-rich upwells. Some animals from the polar seas migrate to this bay to avoid the cold winter months. The shorelines are mostly mangroves, so there’s not ample space for seals to lounge, but there are enough beaches and offshore islands that they make do.

### Dry Season

Northbound winds blow hot, arid air over the forest, drying it out, and depositing sand into the Bay of Timugai, which is why the local sediment is so unstable and doesn't support seagrass common in the known world. Mangrove forests offer some stability, and indeed a food base for herbivores during these dry months, but it is still a barren place. The bay, however, is quite the opposite. The same offshore winds which make the land so dry pushes warm surface water out to sea and draws in cool, bountiful upwells from the northbound current, filling the bay with plankton and small bait fish which in turn attracts ample hunters. This peaks during the winter, when animals fleeing the worst of the polar seas, and find this bay an excellent waystation. As it is too shallow for the likes of megalodon and motomazor to set up a reliable ambush, yet also has plenty of tiny prey, numerous cetaceans such as common, sun, and humpback whales use the Bay of Timugai as a nursery before going back south to Kaishel where the real bounties are to be found.

### Wet Season

As the warm summer months see the sea temperatures finally catch up to those on land, a reduction in pressure reverses the direction of the winds. This not only brings warm, humid air back toward land, generally supporting the coastal forests, it also calls in the abundant storms regularly raging toward the equator. These hurricanes blast the shore, sometimes several times a week, and the forest rapidly wakes up and erupts with life. Many miles of coastal mangrove swamp disperse the fury of the storm, meaning the lands get most of the fresh water yet little of its fury. To add to it all, this is the height of summer so the glacial meltwater from the mountains adds to the freshwater when it's the last thing anyone needs. The forest becomes an Eden during these months, and fauna flock in from the desert for a feast. The bay isn't as productive, though some cool water is drawn in, but of course many animals have long since migrated south to the extreme bounties of the polar summer seas.