More Mysterious Places From the Fringes

Okay folks, I got nothing to report this week, that means instead I'm going to try creating a few new mysterious places of the Flanaess. My last batch turned out to be quite well regarded, so I hope you can find some inspiration in this latest trio of adventure locales. Enjoy!

The Wasted Spur: The Northern Wastes are avoided by all but the hardiest creatures and peoples, such as the Rovers of the Barrens. There are many strange mysteries within this unnatural wasteland and one prevalent rumor is that a race of magical subterranean lizardmen have been responsible for artificially defiling this region for ages. If there is any credence to this tale a good place for explorers to start would be the Wasted Spur.

There are very few landmarks in the wastes, but this short, jagged hill range in the northwest wastes is dotted with caves. The area surrounding the Spur is perpetually gray, lifeless and overcast, and what's worse, mad tribes of Qullan (see Fiend Folio) roam the fringe looking for something, perhaps anything to kill. Once those that penetrate the wastes climb the Wasted Spur, they may find more answers than they bargained for in the Underdark.

The Sable Wood Totem: In the realm of the Ice Barbarians is a forest where a rare fir tree grows, the sable wood. When harvested in the winter and properly treated, the wood turns a lustrous black. The barbarians of this land so cherish sable wood that they will not export it. Deep within the Sable Wood itself at the foothills of Corusks is a place avoided by god-fearing Cruskii called the Sable Wood Totem. Along the headwaters of a gentle stream is a totem pole made of jet black sable wood. The pole is two feet wide, nearly twenty feet tall and is the only of it's kind in the entire forest.

The carvings on the surface of the Sable Wood Totem range from monstrous faces to large glyphs and their significance has eluded the barbarians of the northeast. The iconography of the totem conforms to no known Suel deities, including Vatun. Druids do not claim to have any dealings with this site and have no oral history of someone creating the totem, which never shows signs of fading or decay.

The worst detail of the totem's site that keeps even druids away is the presence of bones all around. These bones are picked clean and mostly come from animals and birds, but some bipeds (and perhaps giant-kin) are not unexpected. A force of some kind keeps the place untouched and anything that wanders into the area for long evidently turns up part of the landscape. Rumors of treasures and ancient buried magic keep foreigners searching for the Totem at any rate.

The Great Spawning Pool: The Pelisso Swamp on the northern face of Hepmonaland is a region few in the Flanaess have ever heard of; even locals of the south seas are hard pressed to give any information on this narrow tropical wetland. This is for good reason because no one, not even Hepmonaland savages dwell there. Dangers abound in this primeval swamp, and one such place is the Great Spawning Pool. Reputedly discovered by the Scarlet Brotherhood or agents thereof, the Spawning Pool is centrally located in the Pelisso and it is a place of nightmares.

Monsters come to this deep, fetid part of the swamp to breed and birth more of their kind. Adventurers ranging into the marsh are sure to find lernaean hydras, thessalhydras, great basilisks, giantic snakes, lizards and likely worse. According to sages and monster hunters, the feeding frenzies and alleged magical properties of this area contribute to the size and frequency of monsters here. There is nothing of value here for adventurers unless it is to test their mettle or perhaps to extract a rare material component from some monster's carcass. Either way, life as it were, will go on in the Great Spawning Pool.