It's been a few days since your group has left the riverfront town of Laria, and each of you currently find yourselves topside as the boat you're riding, The Wani, is pulled along towards the cursed nation of Ulnswhere. Already you've bared witness to the signs of a shifting climate, the golden fields Elininlitroi had been known for taking on a brown, parched hue the longer you pass by. Along the Alivari life still clings and the plants are green and full, though the heavy forests have never taken root on this river's banks this far upstream.
You don't need to be told by the helmsman that when you finally pass the international border between the two nations, it's something you can sense almost instinctively. All around you the air seems to have become dryer, the temperature no longer the mild range you experienced along your journey Northwest, and clouds have vanished from the horizon. When you look up, you can see with clarity just where the borders of the curse extends. It had been overcast just that very morning, with a promise of rain.
You're not likely to see a single drop of natural rain for months, depending on just how long your journey will take you.
"Sometimes," A shiphand speaks up, an older woman with dark brown hair and eyes. "Avis brings her wind to bare and a good storm will skirt past the border. I've never seen one make it much farther then Wind's Edge though. Not the rainstorms at least. Dry clouds sometimes make it to the plainsland proper, never good when that happens though I hear. The grass is parched in most places, you see. Catches easily."
With a shake of her head, she leaves your motley band to attend back to her duties.
In the distance you see dark shadow rising from the riverbank, those with keen eyes make out the crumbled stonework of an old tower. Perhaps one that watched over the river against invaders during the days when Ulnswhere actually had land that was worth being taken. With the rate at which you're traveling, it might be about half an hour until you pass it by.
The mid-afternoon sun hangs low in the sky.
