Where Serpents Be

Geljok wiped the dust from his goggles but still could not see more than a few yards in any direction. The taut rope at his waist was a comfort. It meant that at least one other person was behind him. The company had lost three members in the last week, two from poisoned water and one from the night lizards. They had done well avoiding the vile creatures up to this point, but last night one of the perimeter censers sputtered and the things found their way into a tent. The small devils slithered into a helper’s sleep-sack and chewed him into something unrecognizable. He had warned them repeatedly about the lizards and their immobilizing venom.

When the others reached the ridge, Geljok let them rest before continuing. As the group huddled against the cold, Geljok looked at his map again. He thought this was the last ridge before the Wastes, but he couldn’t be sure. It had been days since they could see more than a few yards in any direction. Without a sun, a moon, or stars to guide them, they were hopelessly disoriented. There was no point waiting out the storm, for he wasn’t sure that it ever was going to stop. He would know that they’d reached the Wastes when they could descend no further and when the rocky ground gave way to silt. Geljok had made the journey once before, that qualified him to lead this expedition. What they didn’t know was that his prior trip into the Wastes was a dismal failure, with only two of the twenty more travelers making it back to civilization. He hadn’t told them about the Ghosts. They wouldn’t have paid him if he had. Magicians or not, if he heard the mournful cries that plagued his dreams to this day, he would turn and leave them to their fate. Half-payment was far preferable to the alternative.

The Gray Wastes are a cold, vast, and desolate wasteland. Few have ever returned from venturing there, but those that have often brought tantalizing stories. Some have told of great dead Serpents that lie coiled across miles of the lifeless expanse. While most people would give such spectacles as wide a berth as possible, magicians and Arcanists have paid kings’ ransoms for samples of the ancient beasts.

Regions, Geographic

• Plains of Blood

Regions, Political

• Kar en’Dalak
• Kiram
• Sor en’Endalas
• Zar en’Kiar

Cities, Towns, and Villages

Landmarks

• The Eyelet