The Windbreak Mountains appear barren and empty to the casual observer, yet even here life clings to the land. Cacti and desert flowers are scattered throughout the foothills. The serrated-leaf bush called silverknife, common to badlands all over the Tyr region, can be found in the foothills, as can the tall. thorny gray-yellow bushes known as wanderer's staff. The mountains themselves are almost barren. although here and there small flowers and mosses cling to life even in this dry, windswept place. The very highest slopes, however, are not dry, but rather seem constantly damp. It is the runoff from these slopes that waters the Crescent Forest and the Verdant Belt. The streams tend to run down only on the leeward side. Wherever these clear and cold mountain streams can be found, there are mountain trees and shrubs in abundance. The foothills hold a variety of animal life: fire lizards, rasclinn, tagsters, id fiends, cha'thrang, and packs of zhackals can be found here. There are herds of erdland here, but z'tal are the common omnivores at the bottom of the food chain. The more cunning predators of the region can cull out a few of these timid lizards from their herd without starting a stampede. In the mountains, on the other hand, animal life is much more scarce. There are carnivores, to be sure, although they prey on each other as much as on the erdland herds that wander the middle slopes. Id fiends, mountain lions, and giant scorpions are the most prevalent of the carnivores, but bulettes and even an occasional earth drake may be encountered here. The highest slopes are the province of winged creatures or those with exceptional climbing ability: rocs, aarakocra, dragonnels, and giant spiders.
The Windbreak Mountains mark the northwestern base of the Ivory Triangle region. This high mountain range juts abruptly from the sandy wastes at the edge of the Tablelands on its northwestern windward) side. These mountains are called the Windbreak Mountains because they protect the Ivory Triangle region from the prevailing west winds blowing off the Tablelands, out to the Sea of Silt.
Travelers approaching the mountains through the sandy wastes first see them as a gray-brown haze on the horizon. Some claim to be able to see the peaks from as far off as Silver Spring. The canyons of the rocky badlands that abut the Windbreak Mountains are neither as long nor as twisted as those found at the edge of the Ringing Mountains. A day's journey through the badlands will usually bring a traveler to the base of the mountains
Unfortunately, travel from this point forward is virtually impossible. The windward face of the mountains forms a nearly unscalable barrier. It looks more like the edge of some enormous broken mesa than a mountain range. Over the centuries, the wind and sand have worn away at the rock, making it slippery-smooth and relatively free of crevices and protuberances
The canyon floors on the windward side are littered with rock and dust worn from the mountain face. Most of the pieces are pebbles, but some of the fallen boulders are twice the height of a man. Worse, these canyons are often filled with sand which has drifted into the region over the centuries. It is not uncommon to find sand dunes five times the height of a man piled against the mountainside. Often this sand has been piled to unstable heights by the wind. These drifts will collapse at the slightest disturbance. Some travelers in the region describe hearing a loud rushing sound, like the wind in your ears. If this sound is very loud, flee – you may well be facing a sand slide.
A typical avalanche will not travel far, only perhaps twice the height of the dune. They are dangerous, however, and travelers caught in the dunes are likely to be buried so deep in the sand that their bodies will never be recovered.
Above the dunes, the mountains are dry and stony, with bare. windswept peaks vanishing upward in the haze. These slopes are nearly unscalable. They offer few footholds, and the gusty wind from the west can hurl a climber off the mountains and to his death.
A climber who somehow manages to scale the lower slopes will likely suffer the mysterious ennui which travelers suffer in the Ringing Mountains. The air gets colder, and unless the climber is careful, he or she will just sit down and freeze to death. Fortunately, there is little need to climb these mountains. Most caravans travel around them to the south, along the Verdant Belt, or on the eastern side through the Blackspine Gap. Moreover, the Bremil Pass lies roughly in the center of the range, and provides access to the rocky badlands along the northern edge of the Crescent Forest. The canyons of this region run east to west, making this a natural alternate route to the city of Nibenay.
On the leeward side (away from the wind), the slopes
are much gentler. Long ridges, like buttresses on ancient
temples, provide easy climbing to the higher slopes of the
mountain. The Crescent Forest extends about halfway
up the slopes on the southern half of the range. Above
the treeline the mountains retain much of the barren,
windswept conditions seen on the windward side of the
range. Where the Forest covers the slope, the ground is
covered with a loamy soil held to the mountainside by
moss and grass.
The northern leg of the mountains does not run directly
against the forest. Enough dry, hot wind blows through
the Bremil Pass to create a band of rocky badlands north
of the forest, and even to thin the forest along its border.