So I've been working on my descriptive lexicon for HotCK by looking at photos of different deserts and badlands to get a feel for the landscape.
I've uncovered a lot of very interesting types of badlands, such as the desert badlands of Egypt's Black Hills, the Anza Borrego Desert in California, and Oregon's own Badlands near Bend.
So, what do most people see as the landscape around Kelmarane? The description in the adventure pretty much leaves it up to the GM to interpret "rugged hills." It is likely technically a desert, so is very dry. But that doesn't mean it is without plants or is even sandy.
The different ways the area is described is:
- "northern scrublands of Katapesh" (pg 9 HotCK)
- "the local cacti grow more and more intense" (pg 15 HotCK)
- There is a "fifteen foot-wide ravine" (pg 15 HotCK)
- The area is referred to as "the Uwaga Highlands" (pg 17 HotCK)
- In twenty years after the monastery fell, "Most wooden structure have rotted away...", which indicates there area gets enough moisture to support fairly rapid rotting.
- There are "poppy fields" near the village (pg 29 HotCK) ( I assume this was supposed to be "pesh cactus fields", but was missed in editing...)
- There is a "small clearing" (ruined fort description, pg 32 HotCK), which implies a forest of some type to me. I suppose it could be just free from brush and/or cacti?
- The map on page 29 of HotCK indicates that Kelmarane is nestled into a river valley surrounded by mountains (by the way, that trade road really should go through Kelmarane...). There appears to be some hills directly around the monastery, but there is a large area of pesh fields between the monastery and the town.
- The map of Kelmarane on page 34 of HotCK (excellent!) seems to show a hilltop village with hardpacked ground and little vegetation (even along the river!)
- The picture of Kelmarane on pg 55 of HotCK also shows a hilltop village, but there it appears to be directly on the slope of a huge mountain! The vegetation is very sparse, but is larger palm trees rather than brush or cacti.
So, what is the area like? I am assuming it is like the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. Here are some pictures that I am using for inspiration:
Berber Village
Hilltop Town
Mountain Valley
Moutain Landscape
Monastery?
Leather Tanneries at Fez (okay, that had nothing to do with Kelmarane, but boy would it be a great place for a combat! Also, look at the other pictures on the site...lots of good ones.)
Atlas Mountain wheat threshing platform
Atlas Mountains panorama, from Lake Takerkoust south of Marrakech
I'm struck with the image of very dry mountains and slopes, dry "bad lands", but a lot more vegetation in the river/stream valleys. I think the village of Kelmarane will also need fields of stuff other than Pesh to survive, and am assuming it will be along the river and upstream of the town. Food fields will likely be managed with terraces, so that water can be diverted into small plots for watering and the slopes near the water source can be utilized.
I'll add more as I find them (as much for a single place for my own reference as anything else.)
Join in if you like (or have comments, of course.)
Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
|
I love all the images you posted, but the one that's closest to what I was thinking of for the cactus field encounter specifically is this one.
Great hunting!
|
I've uncovered a lot of very interesting types of badlands, such as the Anza Borrego Desert in California
Borrego CA is actually very, very beautiful - a lifetime ago I organized some parties there on nights of the full moon, we trecked in about 16 large speakers and about 1,000 people from as far as Arizona and San Fran would make the long drive to 'howl at the moon'.
Good stuff. Just wanted to bump this in case people missed it.
|
Here is some of my ideas of a cactus field:
http://lambert.to/euro2004/morocco/C-in-cactus.jpg
http://pix.alaporte.net/pub/d/13501-1/Cacti+Field+2.JPG
http://www.fotosearch.com/ICN132/f0007014/
http://travel.webshots.com/photo/1126565968037156318PeQUmA
http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/thumb_206/1194812377aQ15yA.jpg
http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Morocco_g69-Cacti_p501.html
http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Morocco_g69-Cactus_Garden_p499.html
Sorry, I don't know how to make them clicky links.
Miniature Market has some really nice terrain for purchase. It's 3D and they have a number of different ones. I especially like the look of the trees. There are also a number of dwellings. The buildings have sketches for most of them, so you may feel inspired to go to their site and just look at the diagrams.
Additionally, many ancient peoples in Africa solved their water problem with rudimentary irrigation. I saw a documentary aeons ago, but I think it was of ancient Sudan where the people had rather sophisticated canals built of stone about 1-2 ft high for hundreds of miles. Egyptians built shadufs/shadoofs that were simple cranes made for getting water on riverbanks. I think in poor rural parts of the world they still use them. Then, there are of course, magical means of irrigating...
I live near badlands, so that is what I think of when people say "desert". I've never been to a true desert. Most of the vegetation in the badlands is scubby, grey-green. Even our Canadian catci are only a few inches high. Down in the valleys, there are more different plants, because it does rain often enough for the badlands not to be a true desert. However, the nature of the badlands is such that the soil is too poor to support grasses and other plants native to the plains. There are many water channels in the hills and by the river there are cottonwoods and poplars. The badlands terrain is uneven, being hills and plateaus that are sandy and often covered with sharp pea-sized stones that are a muddy brown, contrasting the khaki landscape. Without good shoes, one risks sliding on the skree and abrasions (or worse, a twisted ankle). The biggest feature of the badlands is erosion, both wind and water. Many interesting features of real world deserts is that wind has carved arches, hoodoos, caves and caverns.