The Scour
The Scour is a dry, mostly barren wash located in the lowlands of Distal A5. Sculpted by eons of dry wind and a fine sprinking of acidic dust from the Eiquereus Craglands overhead, The Scour has an alien appearance even by Distal standards.
Geography
The Scour is a patch of chalky, orange-yellow rock that has been worn mostly flat by circumvective forces. The coloration of the soil is the result the deposition of fine pyrite particles brought to the region by updrafts in the Eiquereus Craglands across the inflection layer in Eastern C. The pyrite lands in region more often than in other parts of Distal A5 as a result of wind gyres that build up against the adjacent edge mountain ranges, finally settling in the basin where The Scour is found.
When rainstorms sweep through, the moisture hydrolyzes the fallen pyrite dust into iron compounds and sulfuric acid, lowering the pH of the soil and further accelerating the erosion process. These storms also tend to produce 'gully washers' which wash more of the dust in from the surrounding mountains. Pools of poisonous, acidic water sometimes linger, creating cracked, parched expanses of clay and crusts of calcium sulfate when they dry up.
Fauna & Flora
While the soil is dry and more acidic than even most Distal plants are able to tolerate, it is nowhere near as hostile to life as the Craglands themselves are. A few grasses, shrubs, and insects scratch out an existence in the The Scour, but little else in the way of multicellular life lives there on a continuous basis - even the notoriously invasive and persistent Penrose fescue. Occasionally, creatures from the surrounding area will wander into The Scour only to be set upon by opportunists like flabbergrypes or Distal razorbacks from the surrounding foothills. Flashravens sometimes sweep into the area to eat insects, but they leave just as quickly.
Natural Resources
The interaction of the sulfurous rain and ground water with the surrounding chalk is believed to create veins of gypsum crystals in fissures beneath the surface, some of which might prove valuable for mining efforts if not for the fact that they are located in the notoriously hostile Distal Tesseract. Tourists, like explorers from the Burning Hearts Social Club, sometimes visit The Scour to photograph its stark, otherworldly beauty, but the region is otherwise unmolested by sentient beings.
Type
Plain
Location under
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