Magpie Nesting Lands

South of the Oront Mountains there's an inhabited land, although empty of civilization for many years. This area is the only place in the world where the infamous **great giant magpies** breed and nest. This violent species of bird are the size of a small adult man, and in general they are peaceful and intelligent creatures. However, once a year the magpies migrate from all corners of the Giantstep continent to mate and nest at this specific point in the land. Nobody really knows why this is the only spot where they reproduce, but regardless of the reason, during mating season this birds abandon their peaceful ways to become extraordinarily violent and dangerous. Any creature big enough to pose a threat is mercilessly butchered, their remains put in the open as a warning to any other intruders. This includes not only humans, but also regular local fauna and even herd animals. Every structure that was built in the area will be torn down to pieces, and only the strongest stone reinforced with repellent magic will be able to keep them at bay. And even then, that's only a temporary solution, as the magpies will wait for the inhabitants to come out, effectively sieging them until starvation and death. Thus, the populations of the area live in underground lairs, remaining most of the year preparing and hoarding their resources for the months of breeding and nesting they'll have to stay below ground. This also includes their cattle, which is composed of a combination of sheep and farm worms the size of pigs. Due to the inability to fight off the magpies, no nation currently has any interest in occupying the land.

## The Nesting Lands

Between the Gomorrah Breach and the Big Rock Candy Mountains, there lies a strip of land. A seemingly unremarkable piece of countryside, many different tall trees and steep hills seemingly sprout on the land at strange intervals, as if someone had put them there. Around these strange anomalies, there lies a sea of skeletons of all types, from human to cattle, all scattered in horrifically creative ways: impaled, broken, beheaded, split apart, buried in the ground head-in… The bones are never removed for fear of angering the creatures who live in the region, and many travelers would rather risk their lives crossing the Succubus Breach to the east than risking getting in contact with the great giant magpies.

The **Great Giant Magpies** are a species of giant bird that lives all throughout Giantstep. They are frequently seen in the outskirts of most cities all around the continent, usually eating a wide variety of fruits and abandoned meats. Around the size of a human (even bigger when accounting for wingspan) they are great flyers, capable of traversing great distances on a single flight, though to save energy they waddle on the ground most of the time. They are incredibly intelligent and social creatures: While not really sentient, they have proven great feats of cleverness, especially when in groups, like opening boxes or barn doors to eat the grain within. Their behavior is peaceful, and they frequently allow the sentient species to caress their black and white feathers in exchange for food. Changrilese nobility consider the act of cleaning a Great Giant Magpie as a good omen. In many other areas of the world, the arrival of the Great Giant Magpies is celebrated as a festivity, where the townsfolk will feed the birds with plenty of fruit. In exchange, the magpies will use their incredible singing talents to soothe the listeners. They prefer to live near open areas, where their size is not an impediment for them, and as such, they will not really inhabit dense forest patches or very tall mountains. The Great Giant Magpies are omnivorous, and quite the voracious feeders, though they have a preference for fruits and vegetables such as pumpkins and apples. Despite their size, they are quite dexterous with their sharp beak, capable of feats of great skill and precision with them. They have been seen eating carcasses of animals, though they will generally avoid hunting directly unless they are very hungry. Herders have proved that the Great Giant Magpies will leave their charges alone with simple scarecrows.

However, during the summer, the Great Giant Magpies will enter in heat. Their black legs will acquire a reddish tint, and they will gorge on as much food as possible. Then, they will all take flight. All throughout Giantstep, great murders of magpies will be seen travelling to their ancestral lands to breed. Nobody knows exactly why the entirety of the Great Giant Magpie species travel to that exact spot of the world, but what is known is that their behavior changes completely. Abandoning their peaceful demeanor entirely, they will mercilessly attack anything that they consider a threat to them or their nests. Their eggs, the size of a human head, are a very tantalizing price for many predators, and as such, the magpies have, over the centuries, cleaned up the area from predators like snakes, foxes or wolves. Even sentient species are not safe from their wrath, with many carcasses of humans and witchelven littering the land. During this state of heightened aggression, the magpies will butcher anything they consider a threat, and leaving the bodies dying and screaming near their nests, as a warning to any other creature that might pose a threat. Their aggression is so great that there are rumors than even dragons will flee at the sight of a frenzied murder of magpies. Oddly enough, while the birds are extremely savage towards any other being during their mating process, they will not attack each other, instead limiting themselves to singing. Once the birds have found a mate, they will be together for life, or until their partner dies. They are able to find each other despite the long distances, even if they part separate ways after the mating season.

## The Underground Towns

Since the Great Giant Magpies have long ago cleaned the region of near all predators, the land has attracted over the years many herders, who bring their charges to eat in peace during the periods of time the magpies are away, only to leave before the birds start arriving during summer. Many leave months in advance just in case the magpies start arriving sooner, which has happened in the past. However, not everyone is able to leave on time due to a variety of reasons, especially if the storms in the Big Rock Candy Mountains or the Oront Mountains cover with snow and ice all possible passageways. Many dwarvern tribes have tried to build underground towns to protect the cattle during the summer, turning their seasonal destination into their actual homeland. However, the presence of sentient beings underground does not pass without notice to the birds: they are perfectly capable of detecting and identifying the holes the dwarves use to go underground, and they will wait for the dwarves to come out. If they do not, the magpies will cover the holes with rocks and branches, or straight up cave in the entrance of the tunnels, entombing the inhabitants underground. The few surface structures that need to be around, particularly ventilation chimneys, are reinforced with magic of different kinds, both to strengthen their structure and to scare away the birds.

These underground towns stock up resources for the summer, when they have to protect themselves from the magpies. Over the decades, they have also taken to underground farming, such as mushroom production and the feeding of giant domestic worms, much easier to breed and feed underground than sheep. The region’s sheep have also bred to not be afraid of the underground, since they instinctively know that being on the surface during the summer is a death sentence. Still, the underground is not that developed to allow for big populations, and as such, the underground towns only have around a hundred people living in each of them. Attempts have been to connect the tunnels to each other, but the difficulty to do so with the limited population and resources makes it more of a long-term project.