Geography
Amedio Jungle: This lush tropical jungle dominates the region. Ancient, widely spaced trees form a dense canopy, which in turn cloaks the jungle floor in an endless green night. Broadleaf plants, creeping vines, pervasive streams, and tracks of bogs characterize the jungle floor. All manner of insects and animals (some of monstrous size), predatory plants, oozes, and even occasional will-o'-wisps, hags, hydras, or black dragons lair in these verdant depths. Far from civilization, clans of lizardfolk, bullywugs, and strangely colored goblins make their homes, along with primitive tribes of short humans known as the Olman and lithe, dark-skinned elves called the grugach.
Blood Bay: There are many stories behind the color of Blood Bay. Some old salts hold that the waves run scarlet with the blood of Gulrotha, a kraken too wounded by sailors to return to the open ocean. Others think it a pirate plot, the entire bay dyed red in an effort to scare the curious away from their underhanded dealings. Sages scoff at both ideas, claiming the bay's unique coloring is merely the result of iron deposits swept down from the mountains by the Hungry Fish River.
Crab River: Cut off - to a degree - from the larger predators of the Amedio Jungle, the swamps around the Crab River are largely considered safer than those to the east. As such, smugglers, outcasts, and followers of a gruesome aggregate religion make the river banks their home. Despite the river's name, aside from small populations of crayfish and hermit crabs, no sizable species of crustaceans scuttle below these meandering waters. Local legends tell of a chuul-like creature of incredible size that lairs deep within the swamp, and whenever someone goes mysteriously missing on the river, local swampers are quick to claim that "Ol'Rek Claw gottem!"
Emerald River: The Emerald River takes its name from a unique form of algae that grows atop its slow-moving water. Sapping minerals from the river shore and runoff from the Hellfurnaces, this green vegetation forms a quartzlike layer that, from a distance, looks like sheets of floating emerald. While quite beautiful, the shiny algae makes perfect camouflage for the slick scales of the crocodiles, snakes, frogs and the gigantic varieties of each that lurk within.
Hellfurnaces: Volcanic instability, violently changing features, frigid winds, and searing lava flows all characterize this angry range of mountains. Extremely difficult to travel and inhospitable to the majority of life, only the most rugged and determined creatures - often those that relish scorching heat and flame - hunt these treacherous heights.
Hungry Fish River: Coursing through some of the densest stretches of jungle before meeting up with the Tiger River and feeding into Blood Bay, Hungry Fish River is avoided by locals as much for the dangerous animals - and worse - that stalk its banks as for the malicious piranha swarms that are its namesake. Rumor has it that the tiny fish have even learned how to capsize canoes and skiffs by rushing them en masse from the side.
Jeklea Bay: Largely isolated from the rest of the Azure Sea by the Hellfurnaces on one side and the Hook Peninsula on the other, Jeklea Bay spent many years as a holding of the Sea Princes before public unrest and assassinations arranged by the Scarlet Brotherhood saw it fall into anarchy. Though the now-autonomous city of Sasserine has begun to emerge as the main power in the region, Brotherhood ships still frequently ply the waters along this coast to maintain their holdings in the rich and fertile southern jungles. Due to the bay's shape, a steady current swirls the waters counterclockwise along the shore, speeding the passage of frequent merchant, smuggler, and slaver ships as they spur on the sudden resurgence of colonization in the Amedio.
Kraken's Cove: Rumored to be guarded by the legendary kraken Gulrotha, this cove is shrouded in mystery. Barely visible as a dark patch among rocky cliffs, any safe port here is walled off from the the rest of the bay by a wide swath of reefs, rocks, and the occasional scuttled ship, lead-tipped masts just inches below the waves.
Skyfroth River: Thundering down from the Hellfurnaces, crashing falls and deadly rapids exemplify this frothing whitewater river. The two largest falls, the Crushwater (5 miles form the Thunder River) and Jairador's Leap (10 miles from the Thunder River), bar the waterway from any substantial use in commerce or travel. Seemingly just for that reason, a semi-permanent encampment of monks, the Speakers of the Roaring Way, resides in an area of numerous smaller cascades and cliff-side grottos between the two greater falls.
Thunder River: Thunder River is the lifeblood of Sasserine's thriving lumber industry. Lumberjacks upriver in the dense jungles south of Castle Rakin fell huge numbers of exotic hardwood trees, limbing and floating the logs downstream to Sasserine for milling and shipping. Along the way, the logs are tended by the brave and foolhardy logriders, who make the thirty-plus-mile journey balanced on crudely-lashed log bundles and wield long pikes, both to prevent jams and to guard shipments from competing logging concerns. Pay for both the lumberjacks and the logriders is high, as in addition to the standard hazards of their job they must keep a sharp eye out for lizardfolk, river monsters, and the deadly rapids and waterfalls that give the river its name.
Tiger River: While tigers and other large predators do inhabit the eastern reaches of the Amedio Jungle, the Tiger River takes its name from the ferocity of its aquatic inhabitants. The river is best known for its small population of a rare freshwater species of seacat. The bright scales and pelts of these tropical magical beasts fetch high prices, making hunting the aquatic felines as lucrative as it is deadly.
Sasserine's Holdings
Outside its city walls, Sasserine directly controls and relies upon several assets in the surrounding region.
Amedio Highway: Paralleling the Thunder River for much of its length, the Amedio Highway connects Sasserine with Cauldron, its sister city high in the caldera of a dormant volcano. Although trade and correspondence between the two cities is brisk, the road's length is such that it's possible to go for long stretches without encountering other travelers. Much like the river, the Amedio Highway is relatively safe and crowded with merchants and lumber traffic where it runs through the marshlands and plantations close to Sasserine, but those who press on into the jungle find themselves increasingly at risk of being waylaid by lizardfolk, jungle predators, and the occasional hunter from the heights of the Hellfurnaces.
Blisterwall: Angry-looking, red Hellfurnace rock and patches of hairy swamp mold give Blisterwall fortress both its name and a perpetually sore, gangrenous look. Positioned to defend Sasserine's eastern plantations from jungle threats, the relatively secluded and perpetually moist location makes this post the least appealing assignment in the Sasserine military. The only serviceman who regularly refuses relocation is Elryn Sveld (male half-elf), a scout who has successfully captured and trained several Hellfurnace hippogriffs and who is considered the most experienced mountain tracker in the region.
Castle Rakin: The reinforced wooden palisades of Castle Rakin make a regular stopping-off point for lumberjacks and traders along the Thunder River. While the castle proper is merely an unimpressive, three-story stone fortification surrounded by two curtains of sturdy wooden walls, the entire fort is referred to as "the castle". Although it maintains a small garrison of troops, the fort functions more as a trading post, with noisy crowds of merchants, guides, jungle natives, and charlatans hocking their wares and services along the docks. Much of the business conducted at Castle Rakin would be frowned upon within Sasserine itself, but considerable kickbacks to the fort's commanding officer, Major Augustine Meravanchi (female human) assures that business proceeds unimpeded.
Fort Fendawor: A thick-walled coastal fortress erected by the Sea Princes who once held dominance in the region, Fort Fendawor now serves as harbor for Sasserine's depleted naval powers. Few sea-worthy ships moor in the natural harbor beneath the fort's protective ballistae, the majority patrolling the coast and open sea in hunt of pirates. The fiery-tempered Commodore Brandlock (male human) commands the forces at Fort Fendawor and holds the eradication of piracy in the region as his personal crusade. Unfortunately, his efforts are frustrated by limited men, resources, and ships, as well as misinformation - much of which he fears comes from Crimson Fleet operatives within his own fort.
Plantations: Just outside Sasserine, nearly 25 miles of jungle and swamp along the Thunder River have been cleared for use as sprawling, privately-owned plantations. Providing food crops and exports for the city, the river's seasonal flooding makes the land particularly rich, although those who farm it constantly battle reencroaching jungle vegetation and beasts. Cassava, coffee, cotton, millet, rice, sugarcane, and tea - as well as some more traditional farm crops - make up Sasserine's plantations' most abundant products. Aside from their products, a few particular plantations bear noting.
Boudinot Plantation: Run by the obese boss Remming Boudinot, it's rumored that his fields of high growing sugarcane disguise a harvest of criminal crops and hide other nefarious dealings.
Dromdal Plantation: The sharp-tongued yet gentile Josiah Imfrid Dromdal commands the largest plantation (cotton and tea) in the area. His greatest prides are his handsome manor house and widely desired daughter, Chablis. Josiah's six strapping sons prove quick to defend both his and their sister's honor.
Mistroi Plantation: A cursed place, this untended plantation and burnt-out manor house once belonged to one Anton Mistroi, a cruel man who murdered his wife by drowning her in a nearby quicksand bog. When her corpse returned to slay her treacherous husband, the plantation's fearful workers burned the manor house and forever fled.
Local Ruins
Countless civilizations have risen and fallen within the depths of the Amedio Jungle, their ruins often being the only evidence they ever existed.
Chekitewan: Ancient and terrifying to behold, no vegetation encroaches on the midnight-black rock of this immense, steeped pyramid. Formed of six great tiers, hundreds of shallow, man-sized alcoves riddle the structure - a shriveled humanoid corpse propped within each each for the majority of the year. Chekitewan is merely a mysterious, shunned place, where no beast, jungle native, or explorer dares venture. On the nights of lunar eclipses, when the Olman god Tezcaflipoca turns his ever-watchful eye away from the world, these corpses stalk from their open-air tomb. Throughout these accursed nights, the undead search for victims to drag back to their black ruin, their corpselight torches sometimes seen as far north as Sasserine's plantation holdings. While many whisper that those kidnapped become sacrifices to forgotten heathen gods, the descendants of the Olman - after making signs to ward off evil - claim that these walking dead are ancient heroes and the blood they spill temporarily sates the undying hunger of some eternal evil long imprisoned within the dreaded ziggurat.
Evermire: In the vast and trackless fens east of the Emerlad River, a wooden village stands on stilts. Buildings in this tiny frontier town hang suspended over the water at varying heights, from docks just inches above the water to well-to-do houses several stories high, all linked by rope ladders and narrow boardwalks. Completely empty except for small animal nests, these buildings remain weathered but serviceable, with no indication as to why their occupants abandoned them. Stranger still is the ancient tree at the town's center covered in elven runes, all of which translate as gibberish except for the repetition of the name "Evermire". Few in Sasserine have ventured this far into the swamps and no official record of an elven colony in the area exists.
Magalarve: The contested City of Scales, tribes of both lizardfolk and bullywugs claim this ravaged wooden ruin as their rightful home. While many surprisingly complex structures cover the ground, much of the city rests upon platforms amid the branches of ancient deklo trees, inter-connected by an intricate network of bridges and moldering ropes. While neither of the reptilian tribes that contest the city live there now, warriors from both engage in a decades-old guerilla war, each seeking to drive out the perceived interlopers.
Mashwan: Meaning "memory" in the ancient Olman dialect, Mashwan is a place of forgetfulness. Within this wide jungle clearing stand twelve stone obelisks surrounding an incredibly intricate sculpted stone disk lying upon the ground. While investigators hypothesize that the precise sections and runes upon the disk comprise some sort of clock or calendar, none know for sure, as all who near the circle black out and lose all memory of the previous several hours.
Spire of Long Shadows: The one-time seat of the demigod Kyuss' power. The ruined city of Kuluth-Mar surrounds this towering, crumbling stone ziggurat, impossibly shaped like a stylized leafless tree or arcane glyph. Tales tell of foul halls beneath this monolith and, although the Wormgod has been defeated, evidence of his dark and terrible power doubtlessly still writhes beneath his ruined throne.
Nearby Dungeons
Numerous infamous sites lie scattered across the region, their dangers tempting explorers to both riches and ruin.
Beroarak's Maw: Bursting form the earth beside the swampy banks of the Hungry Fish River juts a 30-foot-tall, vine-choked sculpture of a gigantic crocodile or dragon's head. With jaws wide open to snap at the air above, this highly stylized Olman remnant holds the entrance to a deep shaft, which drops into the wet ground like a stone gullet. More than a hundred feet below, bones choke this passage - countless bodies that fill a space of unknown depth. While Beroarak's Maw is little more than a morbid landmark by day, it is said that at nights a spectral Olman priest haunts the site, performing rites and guarding a crypt temple hidden deep below.
Carver's Pit: For a hundred years, Carver's Pit was the primary stone quarry for Sasserine. Year by year the quarry grew deeper, until one day a workman's pick broke through the stone floor and released a rush of chittering monstrosities. The horrors swept the quarry floor clean of all life, then, just as quickly as they came, swirled back into the opening and were gone.
Though panic spread as survivors and tales of the attack reached Sasserine, the deposition of Oren Teraknian and subsequent takeover by the Sea Princes only a few days later threw the city into such chaos that Carver's Pit was quickly forgotten.
Fiddler's Cave: Carnellio Fenderthan was the greatest musician in Sasserine's history, and also one of the most mysterious. The more popular Carnellio's music became, the stranger he acted, withdrawing into himself and spending vast amounts of time in the wilderness. By the time he was 25, he was a complete hermit, speaking to no one and performing only once per year to an enraptured crowd at the Sasserine Opera House before melting back into the marshes and jungles. Folks whispered that the beauty of his own music had driven him insane, or that he'd sold his soul to a demon in exchange for his remarkable skill. Finally, after last year's "Requiem for a Sky Afire" left the whole of Noble District in tears, one of Carnellio's more daring fans tracked him back to a cave deep in the mountains, only to discover that the cave ended in a wall of shimmering green light, with Carnellio nowhere to be seen. Frightened, the fan fled back to the city, where word of his discovery spread quickly through taverns and dancehalls. Now, with the year drawing to a close and the next concert only a few weeks away, curiosity about the Fiddler's Cave is once again rising to a fever pitch.
Hookface's Lair: Deep within the Hellfurnaces lies the home of the notorious red dragon Hookface (a mature adult). His lair is a gaping pit, several hundred feet deep, that cuts to the molten heart of a volcanic mountain. Amid the lava pools of a single great chamber Hookface spends much of his time sleeping surrounded by his massive hoard, rousing only to hunt, char intruders, or investigate upheaval within the mountainous area he considers his domain.
