Mana Waste

[bwatford]

---

MANA WASTE

---

The campaign starts just 8 miles south of the large stretch of land known as the Mana Waste by locals or the proper name is the Western Wastes.

The Great Mage Wars
With the elves gone, the nine magocracies vied for control of the ley lines. They sought to warp the lines so that their power might serve whatever diabolical interest the victorious mages served. Just as one magocracy asserted its full authority over the strongest lines, another rival would interfere. The contests rapidly became less subtle and more acrimonious. Any attempt at secrecy vanished over 400 years ago with the summoning of the Isonade, the creature responsible for the sinking of Ankeshel, by the deranged archmage Tycho Luz. It attacked the coastline of Allain and threatened to sink the western Arbonesse as well as Bemmea. Only the combined might of Bemmea’s mages halted the devastation and restored the beast to slumber.

Summoning the Isonade sparked open war. No longer were the giant slaves of Balinor the most powerful battlefield terrors. Acid rains that stripped flesh from bone and dissolved stone were called down on the city of Cuculla by Dar Ramek of Vael Turog. Gokram Mod’hul and Sethus Krykk, tiefling sorcerers from withered Caelmarath, infiltrated Cassilon and summoned powerful fiends in the streets. Herkest Galbrion, Archmage of
Molovosch, created the Fellmire when she conjured a lakesized vampiric fog that sucked the life from all in its path.

The constant arcane turmoil stressed the region’s ley lines to the breaking point. The mages of Allain manipulated their holdings to seize ultimate control of this resource by bending the lines in warped, unnatural curves toward power sinks they created to permanently anchor the lines. But this seizure of power had unintended consequences. Enkada Pishtuhk, a treacherous member of the Fulgurate Society—a group of arcanists from every magocracy who had joined together to make peace—took advantage of the twisted ley lines. Pishtuhk tore a hole in the fabric of reality and summoned forth the Dread Walker Pah’draguusthlai to destroy the bitterly hated rival Magocracy of Uxloon. Competing mages used the stretched and twisted nature of the ley lines to summon another horror to stop the Dread Walker, but it was too late for Uxloon and the magocracy was annihilated.

The eldritch conflicts escalated with increasingly alien monstrosities laying city after city to waste and withering all around them with each step. Only the combined might of the surviving archmages saved the world from consumption by the Dread Walkers. Unable to dismiss the creatures, the wizards instead halted time around them. Known as the Great Slumber, this effort condemned the creatures to a somnambulistic gait along twisting paths upon the parched lands of the destroyed magocracies. By the time the last Walker was slowed to a few steps each year, a desolate waste covered the lands west of the Ironcrags, and they stand little changed from that time of great ruin.

[bwatford]

---

THE WESTERN WASTES

---

Though the spell that halted the onslaught of the Dread Walkers is some 370 years past, the destruction and corruption of these godlike abominations remains fresh. Travelers shield their eyes from the shambling shapes of the massive Walkers, hovering frozen like enormous statues of repulsive flesh over the crumbled ruins. The absence of natural ley lines in the region creates strange weather and supernatural storms as the land groans under the Walkers that continue to taint its sky and soil.

Apart from the looming Walkers and the strange weather, the dune-choked Wastes conceal the broken walls and cracked spires of lost towns and cities. Dark stairways lead to dungeons and old sewer systems, and the monuments of forgotten rulers and archmages stare with dead eyes. Roachlings and the degenerate descendants of masterless familiars skitter amid the debris, and mysterious screams and unnatural cries echo through the empty streets.

The taint of decaying magical energy pervades the region. Explorers report fields of doors—the only remnants of some destroyed towns—with strange lights leaking from behind the stone frames and cracked wood; rumors say these lead to other times in the Wastes’ history, if not other realms altogether. Other areas host unusual twin spires of seemingly solid stone, gigantic sparks of arcane energy arcing between them. After nightfall, the flickering arcs illuminate the dunes in strange, sickly colors for miles and strike at specific races at different hours, as if directed by some alien intelligence.

So-called “crimson lakes” mark other areas. Visible rips in reality’s fabric float hundreds of feet above the desert and drip a foul, bloodlike substance that accumulates in dark pools below. Such sites are sacred to some goblin tribes, and the coagulated liquid forms into sentient creatures if left undisturbed long enough (treat as blood zombies—see Blood Vaults of Sister Alkava). Adventurers also report that the constellations of Midgard vanish or change as one travels the Wasted West, particularly within a mile of the Great Walkers, making navigation across the lands difficult.

Mostly, however, miles of lonely gray dunes stretch ahead of travelers, punctuated occasionally by a lumbering Walker or the crooked outlines of toppled towers. Aberrations and horrors of all sorts infest these ruined cities, including gibbering mouthers, gugs, mordant snares, urochars (strangling watchers), voidlings, and mighty shoggoths. Packs of undead are common, particularly ghouls, but also mindless hordes summoned from the ruins by mad necromancers. Scores of tribal dust goblins inhabit destroyed towns or wander in transient tent cities beneath the shadows of the Walkers. The wastelands between these ghost cities hold dangerous predators of different sorts. Creatures such as giant scorpions, bulettes, and angler worms lurk among the dunes, picking off stragglers or attacking caravans.

[bwatford]

---

THE DREAD WALKERS

---

The Dread Walkers can’t be dismissed from Midgard, and they can’t be reasoned with. The inhabitants of the Wastes have learned to live with the sight of unearthly horrors over the horizon. Known as the Waste Walkers, Great Old Ones, or Walkers on the Horizon, many but not all of the beings responsible for the Wastes’ creation have been identified by scholars.

[bwatford]

---

CURSED LINES AND ARCANE WEATHER

---

The magical turmoil and strain has warped the terrain into supernatural badlands. Travelers report entire patches of dunes where all magic falls dead one day and is augmented the next. The absence of ley lines makes spellcasters nervous, and some spells perform at maximum capacity or sputter out for no discernible reason. Teleportation, shadow roads, and other magical forms of transportation are extremely risky, since without guiding ley lines, teleporting travelers can find themselves going nowhere, stranded in unintended locations, or even stranded between worlds.

Supernatural Storms
Adding to the danger of spellcasting, supernatural storms born of lingering violent magic and old curses can flay flesh from bone or even stop time without any warning. Several such storms are outlined below.

Boneshard Sleet: A swirling torrent of sharp bone splinters, these storms typically disperse as quickly as they appear, lasting no longer than 60 minutes.

Heavy Air: These areas contain an abnormally bone-dry mist that smells thickly of ozone and extends for up to 1200 feet. The inhaled mist weighs heavily in the lungs.

Magnetic Storm: This unusual storm makes ferrous metals, including all steel, within the area highly magnetic for up to 4 hours. Swords can barely be drawn from scabbards, and metal weapons stick when striking metal armor. Separating any two pieces of magnetized metal is a task unto itself.

Time Storm: Green lightning, singing winds, and upfalling water are all signs of a time storm. Lasting minutes to hours, creatures that have died live again and those that live might age to dust.

Zombie Fog: These pervasive banks of corpse-gray fog extend up to 400 feet in diameter and rise from sites steeped in ancient necromancy. The mostly intact corpses of humanoids caught in the fog’s rotting fumes animate as zombies and typically wander within the fog until drawn forth by the presence of the living. The concealment provided by the thick mists hides the approach of hordes of zombies until much too late.