|
|
If you can get through the valley of rift alive, kudos to you. This isn't your ordinary valley, in fact it is completely flat. The terrain is gloomy, with an ever present shadow looming over head. Thick clouds of dust and eerie fog hang over the ground, hiding the rocky ground; surrounding rock formations that rise above head like islands. The reason for its name, lies beneath this thick blanket where lies a rift, like something tore a giant rip in the earth. Cliffs extend for what seems like forever. Between the sheer flat cliff faces, if one can see well enough through the darkness and fog, there lie slender paths that wind around, and down into the crevice many feet below, surrounded by deadly jagged rocks. But somewhere within the depths of that howling chasm, lies the gateway to hell.
|
|
|
|
A strange, abysmal black mist fills the air surrounding what is known as a gateway to hell. Too thick to see through, and smelling only of decaying trees, creatures are forced to use their ears to pass through this area. Until you're right upon it, you will not see anything -- 'til the mist breaks, and whatever unfortunate wanderer finds themselves in the middle of a narrow path through the trees. Branches are knitted together tightly overhead, so even without that horrible mist, light is scarce; the ground is too hard for prints to be embedded in it. If you have a good eye, you might spot the occasional skull -- prey bones, one might assure themselves, but certainly some are visibly that of a wolf.
|
|
|
|
Beyond the forest of the gateway, there is a broad expanse of grassland dotted with trees, shrubbery, and large rocks. The ground seems shattered, with cliffs and drops, and narrow ridges providing relatively unstable pathways up and down. Scattered across the plains that might once have been flat are small, narrow caves that lead downwards. Many are dead ends -- some are too long to find an end of. Some, however, lead down into the earth, into caverns filled with gleaming crystal glittering in the rock. The way is lit only by a faint glow from the crystals, and only hearing, smell, and touch are reliable in the darkness. Most of these caverns join together into a single massive one, deep and long and the ceilings much too far to be visible, lit by the same softly-glowing crystals as in the smaller caverns. In this cavern, there is a scent of life, tinged with death and blood and hunger and malice, and the air is filled with silence. This place is obviously inhabited, but none except its inhabitants and their sacrifices get this far.
|
|
