Feur-Tor Reng
Hot fumes of sickly yellow and putrid green hues gushed up out of the well down into the heart of Searkrag. "She's breathin' hard today," a eighteen foot tall man rumbled to his companion as they waited for the deadly fumes to clear before peering back down into the well. Metal rungs driven into the wall of the well gave off an acrid sizzle as the acid from the passing fumes lingered to chew on them."We gotta go down today, Franch," the other man said. "See why she's been belchin' so much." Franch tightened the buckles at the wrists of his krillworm gloves. "Better be somethin' easy," he spat then slammed on his helmet of ahnk-chitin. The other man growled as he, too, slammed on his own helmet. Franch went down first, carefully testing each rung before letting his full weight step on it. He had a pack of spare rungs and a hammer to pound them in, but he would rather not waste the time. There was no telling when Searkrag would breathe again and he did not want to be stuck in the well when she did.It was a long climb down. Looking down for a place to step with his new ahnk-chittin boots, Franch saw the black ground sudden split in a web of bright red cracks. It slowly roiled up in a grat bubble. "Hold your breath, Lorzak!" he screamed then sucked in the deepest breath he could. The black and red bubble burst, splashing lava about as another rush of hot, poison fumes gushed up into the well. Soon as the fumes were past him he sucked in hot air and coughed despite his helmet. Franch looked down at the ground and swore. It was no longer floor, but a slow flowing river of rapidly melting rock. "Climb, Lorzak! Floor's gone!" He hurried back up the rungs, cursing at what had to be the Charrrim kingdom's trickery in changing the magma flows. Hopefully, this meant war. He was tired of their tricks.
The Fire Mountains
Near the middle of the great continent are a range of hollow mountains that continuously smoke.
Now and again molten rock flows out one of their many channels or newly made cracks or crevices and spreads out beyonds the mountains, slowly growing the badlands.
It takes a good ten years after cooling for the newly spread badlands to start growing any sort of plants.
Once plants start to grow, insects and birds inevitable follow.
Decades later, other animals might start to move in. What life does begin always runs the risk of being burned out by a new flow of lava.
Those who have to cross the badlands instead travel around them.
Those truly desperate or daring cross the badlands with care to stay well away from the mountains, though this is very dangerous.
It's not just the Fire Mountains that are a threat but the very aggressive and brutal Vulmohn who delight in attacking, and eating, strangers in their lands.
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