WORLD BOOK WORLD BOOK WORLD BOOK 0106 0106
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single geyser, conditions exist for many others, and they
often occur in wide fields with a dozen or more nearsimultaneous eruptions. Unfortunately for the parched
wanderer, it is difficult to harvest any of a geyser’s precious moisture before it sinks back into the earth or
evaporates into the dry air.
Quicksand
A danger in any sandy region, quicksand is hard to detect and harder to escape. Natural quicksand is a mixture of sand, clay, and water that, on the surface, seems
exactly like the terrain around it. By the time one has
stepped in it, though, it is nearly too late. Without assistance, victims eventually sink beneath the surface
and suffocate or drown. Animals are equally at risk,
and many thakal have met a similar doom, though few
quicksand patches can engulf an entire elephant, colossadant, or trisaur; these become stuck and take an enormous collective effort to rescue.
An old Makadan proverb says, “One man’s peril is another’s profit,” and a patch of quicksand holds nearly
every treasure that has ever sunken into it. Profit can be
found in them, from coins and gems to arms and armor.
Retrieving it all is merely a matter of excavation that
endangers no one if carefully approached. Ambitious
miners make a living this way, seeking patches (via coin
or scouts) and then setting upon them with laborers using shovels, buckets, and hoists. While some patches
turn up nothing, miners garner enough profits to continue these practices.
104
Silent Burial
The wastelands shift quietly through the night. Even
gentle winds gather the sands in drifts against anything that will hold them in place. Travel delays occur
for many every morning, as they need to dig out and
shake clean any equipment. It is common for a tent or
awning to be completely buried in soft sand over the
course of just a few hours. Often this can be an aid, hiding tiny dwellings from predators. However, dangers occur when someone injured or weakened cannot dig out
of the sands. It is not uncommon for men sleeping in the
open to be buried alive, giving their lives up peacefully
to the moaning wind and sands.
Sinkholes
The considerable transformation of the wastelands at
the hand of wicked magic leaves much of its surface unstable. Wide sinkholes are common where underlying
earth collapses, leaving a depression anywhere from one
to 20 cubits deep and from 10 to 500 paces across. Erosion
from beneath is the primary cause of a sinkhole, so they
are seen as good, rather than bad interruptions of travel—they often reveal a source of water. Sinkholes can be
a salvation in the harsh desert, though almost every one
may be occupied and defended by desperate creatures.
There is a second reason for wasteland sinkholes, but only
experienced eyes can distinguish such without descending into one for closer observation. Ancient burial sites
from the Barbarian Age lay in the thousands across what
