Sotrocho

Geography

In Frastland there is the blackened and balmy Sotrocho Forest, adjacent to the ashen Fried Forest. It is a thick southern hinterland of indubitable peril where sand instead of grass is coated with cedar needles. The burned odour, the grey ashes of the Fried Forest drifts from the east and stings the eyes and blocks the nose. However the lumberjacks and beastmasters that inhabit the borders are cloistered in rough-hewn stone fortresses and keep their hands on their rifles the moment they step beyond the arched gate. Aviators and airship captains alike shun this place.
Even the cloud-spirits fear the Sotrocho - not a single patch of grey or white hovers below the merciless azure. For two thousand years not one drop of has fallen upon it, and not one stream has crossed the searing sand - the cedars have grown roots so deep they penetrate the aquifer. But sunburn is not the true danger here - instead the unrelenting glare is favoured by hermits of the Zenith Othuulian race who live their lives as sun-worshipping anchorites devolved to a state of apedom, brutalizing, ritualistically mutilating, and robbing any traveller they can overcome. Occasionally they congregate in massive groups, allied for the sake of sexual relations and combined pillaging might. They have begun society anew.

Fauna & Flora

Here dwell the man-sized wasps whose sting can annihilate an elephant - their hives are rumoured to hang from the highest branches in the deepest reaches of the forest, but no incursions there have been made yet. They are massive and crescent-shaped, eyes beady and hateful, and are perhaps the greatest warrant for the anti-aircraft guns of the rock-hewn fortresses. Their venom, however can be distilled and diluted and fashioned into an array of alchemical concoctions all sharing the same brimstone pungency and the unusual associations with fire and persistence.
When a tree shudders and creaks, it is best to turn the other way immediately for even the earwigs of Sotrocho are baleful indeed. They range from the size of a hound to a horse, and the reason the lumberjacks tentatively tap upon the bark before commencing their hewing. Earwigs are known to hollow out entire stands of cedars and eat them inside-out, turning them into massive vertical nests til the trunks give way. Their only useful function is the fungus that a specific subspecies of them eats - the Red-banded Sotrocho Earwig's stomach is noted for being consistently full of a fungus that allows the eater to cross a fathom in a single leap, and land without harm.

Natural Resources

Here dwell rugged lumberjacks in their fortresses of rough-hewn stone, who claim Sotrocho's profuse logs of cedar and pine to be sent off to Tragemnorte. As do the miners, who quarry from the earth blocks of andesite, and the trappers, who behead the giant hornets and earwigs and rip the coveted venom sacs from their bodies. Even selkies, from as far away as Jurelond, come here with their longbows and rifles and blunderbusses to blast and mutilate their way through this fetid forest's wildlife, and return home with cadavers on their backs. Megatheriums are hunted for their meat and hide, and so are the scorpions and serpents.

Type

Forest, Boreal (Coniferous)

Included Locations

• Fried Forest