A Desert Primer

Boulder fields consist of broken, jagged rock. Some are old lava flows long since cooled, and others are valleys choked with rockslides or slopes of scree. They usually lie near mountains, and most are no larger than a few miles across. Boulder fields are formidable obstacles since they lack water, vegetation, and shade, and if travelers do not have sturdy boots or sandals, the sharp rocks can cut their feet to ribbons. Deep gulches and crevices crisscross boulder fields, offering plenty of hiding places.

Windblown dust, ash, and silt accumulate in depressions to form dust sinks or silt basins. The largest known example is the Sea of Silt, but smaller sinks exist in almost any low-lying terrain. Even a light wind stirs the dust into billowing clouds. On calm days, a dust sink appears to be a smooth plain of pale gray or dun powder. Appearances are deceptive. The dust is too light to support a traveler’s weight, but it is thick enough to suffocate anyone who falls in. Sometimes, the ground beneath the powder is uneven, concealing a dangerous drop. One misstep, and a traveler can disappear beneath the dust.

Large bodies of silt often extend like the rivers of old into more solid terrain, following narrow channels called estuaries. Many estuaries of silt are shallow enough for human-sized travelers to wade with care. Very tall creatures such as giants can navigate correspondingly deeper silt; a giant can wade through silt 10 feet deep without difficulty.

Many large sinks and estuaries are sprinkled with islands of high ground, isolated from the “mainland” by stretches of dust of varying depths. Some of these islands are rocky protrusions just large enough to accommodate a giant or two, and others can support an entire village. Miles of silt have sheltered many islands over the years from the touch of defiling magic, and those islands remain surprisingly verdant.

Perhaps no terrain on Athas offers greater contrast than the Sea of Silt. What on other worlds would be a great body of water is instead a basin filled with choking dust. The silt obscures vision and bears no weight, making travel a tremendous challenge beyond the known shallow pathways.

Dust sinks are smaller areas of silt that bring the same hazards to other Athasian terrain. They underscore the devastated environment while presenting interesting challenges.

Features

Dust sinks are common near the Sea of Silt, where wind-blown dust collects in low areas. They can also be areas that once held water but were defiled in ages past. Heroic tier characters can be introduced to the perils of dust sinks through small pits of silt or a moat of silt that surrounds a location they must reach. In many areas of Athas, such as those near Altaruk, narrow estuaries of silt intrude into adjoining terrain.

The Sea of Silt is an excellent location for characters of upper heroic through epic levels. Its depth can vary suddenly, and few safe trails are known. Skill challenges might involve protecting supplies from silt storms, charting a safe course, finding safe islands of refuge, and repairing a silt vessel.

Silt can be flat or rest in wavelike drifts. When the wind is strong, the silt can rise up to obscure vision. Visibility can vary during an encounter as the wind changes (perhaps randomly) each round.

Dust can be a hazard, forcing characters to hold their breath. Characters covered in silt might find that some of their survival days become depleted, making them more susceptible to sun sickness. Visually, characters are covered in gray-white powder and look like ghosts.

Travel across silt requires magic or special vehicles such as silt schooners, and travel is necessary to explore distant islands. These islands are the sole sources of vegetation and water in the Sea of Silt, and adventurers can explore, gather supplies, or even be shipwrecked on an island. Some isles also hold secrets of Athas’s past.

Crossing the sea by riding in a silt vessel or walking a narrow path can lead to exciting encounters, especially with foes that can use forced movement to maneuver the characters into deeper silt.

Creatures

Giants are iconic inhabitants of the Sea of Silt, dwelling on most of the islands. Other inhabitants include anakores, brohgs, cloud rays, floating mantles, oasis beasts, silt elementals, silt horrors, silt runners, and silt sharks. Islands hold a greater variety of creatures. Flying beasts skim the surface of the sea, and on rare occasions, travelers might come across traders or raiders in silt vehicles.

Low ranges such as the Mekillot Mountains, the Stormclaw Mountains, and the Black Spine Mountains dot the Tyr Region. They are daunting obstacles. Their bare, rocky peaks—sometimes as tall as 6,000 feet—offer little water or shelter to make the climb worthwhile. After a daytime temperature of well over 100 degrees, temperatures at night can plunge near the freezing point. Most of the exposed rock crumbles under the twin hammers of heat and cold, so great slopes of broken rock and frequent rockslides make for arduous travel.

Mountain vales, on the other hand, often are watered and filled with heavy scrub, cacti, or sparse forest. Little of the land is suitable for cultivation, but savages and monsters such as goliaths, gith, and kirres make their homes in vales. Large networks of caverns lie under most of the low mountain ranges, home to all sorts of strange creatures that prefer to hide from the sun.

A truly awesome mountain range marks the western border of the Tyr Region—the Ringing Mountains, whose highest peaks reach 20,000 feet or more. Some of these peaks have thin but permanent snowcaps.

Little open water remains on the surface of Athas; most is buried underground. In a few places, water seeps upward, saturating the land to create mudflats. Most common near or in dust sinks (especially the shallows of the Sea of Silt), mudflats hide beneath the churning dust, revealed only when the winds clear an area and expose the soupy mess to the air. Uncovered mudflats usually dry out in short order, leaving behind hard, cracked clay that might or might not be solid enough to support a traveler’s weight.

A few mudflats manage to survive, sometimes through cultivation and sometimes by happenstance. These areas are lush with vegetation, including desert grasses, thorny bushes, and small trees. Where mudflats stand in silt basins, low islands of dense vegetation rise above the dust. These mudflats are rarely large; most measure only a few hundred feet across.

Tangled underbrush and mucky ground make traveling through these areas difficult but not impossible. In general, mudflats offer little to travelers; there isn’t much standing water, and dangerous predators hunt creatures that subsist on the greenery.

Pools of water are rare on Athas, and few oases are permanent. When water trickles near the surface, it sometimes moistens the surrounding dirt or silt, creating a mudflat. The mud can form a hard, dry layer during the day or when the flow of water lessens.

Features

A mudflat’s hard crust can be treacherous, breaking without warning to become difficult terrain or a grasping bog (Dungeon Master’s Guide® 2, page 60). The crust might conceal the presence of other terrain, adding an exploration aspect to an encounter.

The size of actual pools in a mudflat can be altered to create a specific story effect. The water might be bound in mud, requiring some effort to extract. Tiny pools can work well in an encounter in which there is competition to drink the water first. A roleplaying encounter can become tense if the water is insufficient for everyone to have a share. A larger pool can be an interesting oasis or highlight a larger threat.

Travelers can spot a mudflat from afar due to a concentration of vegetation. The moisture supports fast-growing, thin-stemmed brush and trees, including some with tall trunks and a wide, dome-shaped top of large fronds. Ferns, razor-sharp grasses, and broad-leafed plants create cover and add diversity to an encounter’s terrain. Grasping plants can be a threat, especially if the plants are in pools of wet mud and can drag creatures into or under the muck. 

Creatures

Because mudflats are small and exist within other terrain types, a wide variety of creatures are here. Chathrangs seek out mudflats, hiding among tall reeds. A snakelike reptile called a kluzd (use crushgrip constrictor statistics; Monster Vault, page 300) likes to lurk under mudflat crust, striking as a target walks over it. The kluzd drags its prey under the mud, exposing the quarry to risk of suffocation (Rules Compendium, page 180).

Most hilly regions on Athas are rocky badlands— highly eroded mazes of sharp-edged ridges, winding canyons, and thorn-choked ravines. Daunting escarpments force travelers into meandering courses along the ravine floors, which often end in blind canyons or loop back on themselves. Badlands can be barren, waterless wastes, but many are filled with thorny brush that can completely clog the ravine floors.

Rocky badlands are difficult to cross, no matter which way a traveler means to go. Sticking to a canyon’s floor is easy enough, but a canyon rarely leads in the direction one desires, and the thick, prickly brush makes for very hard going. Climbing up the walls to crest a badland ridge usually involves a dangerous scramble of several hundred feet, and travel along the top of a knife-edged ridge is equally challenging.

Twisting canyons of crumbling rock, badlands are an exciting terrain for exploration and combat.

Features

Colorful striations, walls and pillars hundreds to thousands of feet high, fantastic bridges worn by the wind, and meandering mazes that change elevation drastically create a visually stunning scene. Images of the Grand Canyon or other real-world arid badlands can serve as inspiration for encounter settings

The varied terrain works well for exploration and skill challenges to traverse the terrain, hunt for prized creatures, search for ritual components, find a secretive ally, race against foes in chariots, or locate an ancient ruin. Combat encounters can happen in narrow ravines, on rock bridges, while mounted along perilous switchbacks, or in a box canyon filled with cacti. The high elevations are particularly dangerous at night, when temperatures plummet below freezing. Characters who need a warm shelter might be forced to find caves, abandoned or otherwise.

The shade and oases formed from water trickling down from mountains can allow brambles and cacti to form dense thickets. Stunted trees bearing leaves of silver, gold, and purple hues abound. Silverknife, a form of brush with serrated silver-white leaves, is common along badland walls. Travelers should make note of wanderer’s staff—round bushes of yellow and gray featuring tall stems. The stems are fine for reptilian mounts but deadly to a kank. Dagger plants are another hazard; their serrated leaves are as sharp as shards of obsidian, and the ends bear long needles containing a paralyzing poison.

Creatures

A wide variety of Athasian creatures live in rocky badlands, notably aarakocras and gith, but also baazrags, beetles, belgoi, braxats, brohgs, cilopses, gaj, hejkins, id fiends, insects (giant and swarms), rocs, silk wyrms, spiders, and tembos.

Slave tribes and raiders also make homes in hidden ravines. Hermits live in badlands caves, and some have ancient knowledge or serve as psionic teachers. Others delve into forbidden lore or are near madness, making them formidable adversaries.

Great flat plains encrusted with salt that is white, brown, or black, salt flats can extend for miles. Some are dotted with briny marshland, but most are barren and lifeless. Any water is usually too brackish to drink and might be poisonous. Salt flats offer no shelter, and the temperatures reach more brutal extremes than anywhere else on Athas. Sun sickness can kill an unprotected traveler caught in a salt flat.

If the salt flats have one asset, it’s that no creatures linger in them for long. A prepared traveler can cross a flat without risking an encounter with a wild beast or roving band.

Salt flats are expanses of flat, salt-encrusted ground. Few creatures threaten travelers here due to the lack of vegetation and water, and it is easy for vehicles to move across the featureless terrain quickly. Travelers must take care not to run low on supplies. The Great Ivory Plain is the largest salt flat in the Tablelands, occupying a wide band southeast of the city-states of Gulg and Nibenay.

Features

The crunch underfoot, the sun’s rays reflecting off the shining white plains, and the taste of salt in the air can stimulate the senses of characters and the imaginations of players. Ease of travel can be attractive, especially when time is of the essence.

However, travel can become monotonous unless a trip is punctuated periodically with ruins, an oasis, and features such as glimmering mirages or lightning pillars (Dark Sun Creature Catalog, page 135). Sunwarped terrain and creatures can work well here due to the terrain’s exposure to the sun. Travelers wear cloth headgear when strong winds blow, shielding their eyes from salt. When battle erupts, salt adds insult to injury—see the salt flats terrain and salt pile terrain power (Dark Sun Creature Catalog, page 136).

Water is present in salt marshes or brackish oases, and it is usually undrinkable. You could allow hard Endurance checks to gain benefit from the water, with a failure by 5 or more resulting in sun sickness (Dark Sun Campaign Setting, page 199). Dense gatherings of grass, brush, and tall reeds usually surround a salt marsh or an oasis, but these plants can also hide dangers. In addition, a salt marsh can crust over, dropping the unwary into waist-high water just as a creature attacks.

Creatures

The rarity of monsters in salt flats can make this terrain an ideal place to meet merchant house members, dune traders, or other travelers, bringing roleplaying to the forefront. If traders abscond with the characters’ supplies, a survival trek through the salt flats could be very challenging.

Of course, creatures do pass through the terrain occasionally. Flying creatures work well, as do insects and reptiles. Large elite or solo monsters that traverse the land can make formidable opponents. Cilopses, earth drakes, gaj, id fiends, megapedes, and scorpions are among the few creatures that make homes here. Undead, such as salt zombies, are an excellent choice to underscore the lack of life in a salt flat. You might also consider reworking the salt golem as an elemental, rather than animate, threat in this terrain.

Salt marshes and shallow, ephemeral lakes can form in and near salt flats, dust sinks, and sandy wastes. Most are only a mile or two across, but a few—such as the Salt Meres or the Maze of Draj—extend for as much as hundreds of miles. The water, too salty or alkaline to sustain life, is undrinkable. Many salt marshes dry out completely in the months of High Sun, and some remain dry year-round if the following Lowsun comes and goes without rain.

A salt marsh contains low grasses, reeds, or brush. Ankle-deep channels of briny water encrusted with caked salt wind through the marsh, sometimes opening out into large, shallow lakes. Here and there, tough stands of scrub or the occasional tree stand above the grasses. Few creatures can digest the tough vegetation, but the marshes buzz with tiny insects that can drive a traveler half mad.

Vast stretches of yellow sand, sandy wastes are the most identifiable deserts of Athas. Some wastes are plains where the air is still and no winds disturb the trackless land. In other wastes, the landscape takes on a rumpled appearance as winds pile up sand to form great dunes. The topography of such wastes changes endlessly; old dunes slowly erode under the wind, and new ones form when deadly sandstorms whip up with little warning. Travelers caught in a storm hear the wind howl in a deafening scream while stinging sand bites their skin. The worst storms can scour flesh from bones.

In the flat areas of Athas, sandy wastes do not hinder travel. Oases, wells, and stands of tough scrub can sustain desert-dwelling creatures and people indefinitely. Flat sand is easy for travelers, although a lack of landmarks increases the risk of becoming lost.

In areas that have dunes, travel is more challenging. Mekillot dunes, named for their passing resemblance to the huge drakes, can be hundreds of feet tall, but most dunes rise no higher than a hundred feet. In wastes where the winds shift or collide, star dunes might form. The ridges of these mounds extend away from the main mass, forming arms that spread out like tentacles in all directions.

Classic desert terrain, the sandy wastes of Athas capture the complete degradation of the land into waves of sand dunes that extend as far as the eye can see.

Features

Dunes are formed as the wind strikes the sand in different ways. Travel is often slow due to the soft and shifting ground. Adventurers must stay sharp since the dunes limit visibility and are perfect for ambushes.

Various types of sand dunes help avoid monotony while providing an iconic desert experience.

• Mekillot sand dunes are mounds up to 750 feet high, similar in shape to the Athasian beast of burden for which they are named. Strong winds pile the sand, then smooth away any peaks.
• Wave dunes are long ridges of sand, 50 to 100 feet tall, formed when winds from two directions push the sand up into long peaks. Traveling over this terrain can involve navigating a maze formed by the dunes or cresting the sharp ridges.
• Crescent dunes form when winds push sand over a hard surface, creating a series of curved dunes. Meandering between these dunes is monotonous.
• Star dunes are shaped by wind from many directions, forming into tall peaks with long radial arms. Typically long-lasting, star dunes can serve as landmarks for easier orientation.

Sun exposure is a constant threat among the dunes, since little shelter is available. The heat of the day and the cold of night are also dangers. Dying of thirst is always a possibility; water seldom pools in the sand, and the rare oasis is usually fiercely guarded.

Encounters can change due to wind, which can shift terrain randomly, push or blind creatures, and provide concealment. Sandstorms are an excellent component of a skill challenge and can throw characters off course, deplete survival days, or provide escape from dangerous foes during combat.

Shifting winds also reveal the past when ancient ruins are momentarily uncovered. An encounter in which the characters must race to explore a ruin before it is swallowed up again can be compelling, especially if it reveals tantalizing glimpses of the true history of Athas. Ruins also provide contrast to the arid terrain and highlight environmental change.

Plants struggle against the dunes, but occasional clumps of dry grasses, small bushes, and fields of small cacti grow in the slacks among the dunes. Traders warn against allowing mounts to graze on plants that have purple leaves, although kanks are fine on such fodder.

Creatures

Merchants, raiders, and slave tribes all have reason to travel the sandy wastes of Athas. Many of the trade roads between city-states cross such terrain. The sifting sands are also perfect for crawling and burrowing creatures such as anakores, baazrags, earth drakes, gaj, megapedes, nightmare beasts, Athasian ant lions, snakes, and burrowing spiders.

Scrub plains are savanna, prairie, or chaparral with just enough water to support extensive vegetation. Tough, dry grass punctuated by creosote bushes and tumbleweed dominates the ground. One can even find a few small trees scattered across the landscape. By Athasian standards, scrub plains are almost lush, supporting a high concentration of wildlife.

Excessive grazing and the use of defiling magic have reduced some scrub plains in the Tyr Region to ruin. Only a few such areas survive in the wild lands between the city-states, protected by primal guardians who use ancient magic to destroy intruders and safeguard their homes. However, beyond the Ringing Mountains stretch vast scrub plains such as the Crimson Savanna.

Increasingly rare, scrub plains are areas of sandy or rocky terrain dotted by twisted cacti, thorny brush, and a few tall, thin, short-leafed trees. Morning dew or the trickle of underground springs provides precious water that sustains the flora and fauna. Pools of water are scarce and seldom without dangerous inhabitants or other threats.

Features

The abundance of life makes a nice change from the expected in an Athasian campaign, especially after voyages through barren areas. For a striking contrast, a scrub plain after a brief rain can erupt in bloom, filling the area with colorful flowers. So much living cover can heighten the feeling that predators must be lurking within (and they probably are). Encounters with defilers or druids can highlight the rare and delicate nature of this terrain.

Valuable plants are the treasures of scrub plains. Color images of real-world desert plants can help players visualize the amazing variety. The silver scuppernong berry grows on small bushes and can be made into a wine favored by elves. The dull yellow leaves of the succulent oleracea are a valued crop that can be eaten raw or cooked. Faro cacti blossom once a decade into fruit favored by nobles, and the needles can be ground into flour.

It is also possible to highlight a few desert plants by giving them special qualities. A party that has barely survived a harsh encounter might find relief in a rare plant that, when consumed, provides healing or some other form of recovery, such as allowing characters to regain a healing surge.

Plants can also be a significant hazard, even when nonsentient. Those with purple spots on their leaves and stems are known to be poisonous (especially to halflings and dwarves). With the proper skill and care, small applications of poison could be extracted.

Creatures

Any abundance of plants attracts animals. Scrub plains draw a wide variety of predators and prey, including most monsters in the Dark Sun Creature Catalog. Herds of wild beasts could provide a chance for characters to procure a mount or survival days.

Elven tribes seek animals to fill their herds. Defilers covet vegetation that allows them to better fuel their spells until the area is destroyed. Druids and other primal guardians come for the opposite reason—to protect the land. They watch trespassers carefully, weighing their actions and savagely punishing those who take too much of the land’s meager offerings. Tales of a druid’s wrath fuel many Athasian superstitions.

Merchants and nobles might employ adventurers to find valuable plants or creatures. Templars or organizations such as the Veiled Alliance could hire characters to locate rare ingredients for rituals.

Stony barrens dominate the Tablelands. Most barrens are bedrock shelves exposed by windstorms. These weathered plains are covered with rocks that range in size from pebbles and gritty dust to huge piles of standing boulders. In places, the bare rock gives way to hard-packed red earth, and yellow sand collects in crevices, forming dunes or drifts. Huge mesas and pointed buttes dot the plains, a testimony to the erosive power of the elements.

Cacti proliferate in stony barrens. Hundreds of species grow throughout, appearing in all shapes and sizes, from small, thorny buttons to towering saguaros. Some cacti are edible, making suitable fare for travelers low on supplies. Others are stealthy predators that can kill careless travelers; in the Athasian wilderness, one can never be certain who is the hunter and who is the hunted

Stony barrens are the most common terrain on Athas. The ground consists of sheets of sandstone, and over the ages, the surface has been broken into rocks ranging in size from pebbles to boulders. The common Athasian saying “For every rock a dozen thorns” reflects the multitude of cacti and thorny bushes that thrive in stony barrens.

In some areas, particularly near mountains, the vertical shelves of sandstone have broken and tumbled into fields of large boulders. These fields are far harsher for travelers, offering little water or food.

Features

The texture, size, color, and vertical nature of the boulders and terrain can inspire rich descriptions. In stony barrens, the bedrock can be worn into pits where sand or silt collects from adjoining terrain. Crescent dunes can form, blown from neighboring sandy wastes. Stone pillars, mesas, and buttes add diversity. Stones can be difficult terrain, require climbing or encourage athletic leaps, or divide a battlefield into separate sections.

Scattered stones can reduce overland speed to half the usual in some areas and disrupt caravans and exploration. Kanks and mekillots can usually traverse stony barrens without impediment, but vehicle wheels require constant maintenance.

Cacti in stony barrens come in many shapes and sizes. Some might contain water or be highly nutritious, such as the squat thorny grall, which grows bulbous fruit eaten raw or fermented to make “cactus blue” ale. Others have mobile needles that dig into a creature’s flesh until they reach vital organs. Some cactus flesh is poisonous, contains parasites, or fires needles on tethers to drag prey closer to feeding thorns. Motile, semisentient cacti such as the zombie cactus (Dark Sun Creature Catalog, page 22) and the cacti described in ”Hazards of Dark Sun” (Dragon 364) can be the basis for combat encounters or hazardous exploration.

Vegetation is far rarer in boulder fields, where water is found only in small, stagnant pools and can be unfit for drinking. Boulders are treacherous for mounts, since the rocks can catch their legs or shift under a creature’s weight.

Travelers might need to cross boulder fields to reach the Ringing Mountains or other ranges. Praying to earth spirits before such a journey is a common folk practice.

Creatures

Herds of wild animals feed on the cacti and brush in stony barrens, in turn attracting predators of all sizes, from hordes of tiny z’tals (Dark Sun Creature Catalog, page 137) to enormous drakes. Creatures that hunt in rocky badlands often find refuge or set up ambushes among the rocks. Mobile attackers, such as dune reapers and thri-kreen, can spring in and out of cover.