WORLD BOOK WORLD BOOK WORLD BOOK 0121 0121
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Chapter 5: TRAVERSING THE WASTELANDS
The Vermilion Crater
Twelve miles across, the Vermilion Crater earns its name
from its nocturnal glow and the crumbling red wall around
its circumference. Built of strange, deep-red stone, the
wall stands 25 feet tall and 15 feet thick at best, though
many areas of the wall have fallen to rubble and ruin.
The inside of the crater slopes down into terraced tiers
with alternating levels of plant life and city ruins. Any
city buildings are made from the same red stone as the
top wall. At the bottom of the crater sits a tall, distorted,
structure. Taking the path through the ruined gates in
the wall leads to the first tier.
First Tier: The largest tier surrounds the top of the
crater with common desert plants, all various tints of
red and some seeming altered, such as bearing fruit uncommon to them. Rodents, lizards, and insects scurry
about the plant life.
Second Tier: The city on this tier remains in good shape
with few signs of natural weathering. Other than the buildings, there are no signs of former or current inhabitants. As
above, rodents, lizards, and insects scurry about, though
these all seem bigger and redder in color than normal.
Third Tier: Former orchards and vineyards crowd this
tier, but only the largest trees still stand in neat rows.
Most of the other plants and trees have gone wild, and
all now bear large needle-like thorns as well. Any bark is
now a deep grey and leaves are shades of deep reds and
purples. A powdery fungus covers all the plants here, releasing spores that, if inhaled over a long period of time,
cause hallucinations.
Fourth Tier: The red-stone farm buildings here have
doors too large for humans and too small for pachyaur.
They may have once been for animal stabling and care.
Fifth Tier: This plant-tier hosts a thick jungle of plants
and vines bearing arrow-sized thorns and scarlet fruits
(both very poisonous). Many plants here move their vines
or branches and feed on the bright red creatures that live
in the jungle. Very aggressive and very large crimson and
grey worms live here. They average 20 feet in length and
their hides hold innumerable venomous spines.
Final Tier: A ruined red-stone city dominates the floor
of the crater, surrounding a large fortress. The fortress
seems to be carved or sculpted from a single, red, metallic crystal, and it radiates heat, making this part of the
crater ten degrees warmer than above the crater. The
buildings here are in worse condition than higher tiers,
leaving only a few not in disrepair or ruin. Unlike the
second tier, though, the inhabitants remain here—desiccated and calcified corpses, clothes and flesh alike colored varying shades of red and rust. Coarse, crumbling
red sand—from calcified, disintegrating red stone—
coats the roads here. Rodents, lizards, and insects here
are a good deal bigger and more vibrant shades of reds
than normal, and their hides now also bristle with venom-coated spines.
Inside the central fortress lives a strange creature.
Its reptilian lower body has six insect-like legs and a
long spine-covered tail. Its upper body has four large
reptilian arms covered in scales and ending in wicked
black claws. Two smaller humanoid arms with multiple
joints reach and flail about from the center of its chest.
The creature’s head looks like three hairless humanoid
heads painfully melted together, each mouth babbling,
screaming, or speaking in an unknown language.
The red calcified dust coats all organic matter and furnishings in the fortress and this tier. This is actually a
stone-like fungus that communicates with the fortress
creature. If the creature wishes, it can activate and animate the corpses covered in fungus. Destroying these
corpses releases spores in a three-foot radius around
them; these seep into exposed skin or lungs or eyes.
The dust slowly kills the new host as the vermilion color
spreads over the host body.
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