Chapter 5: TRAVERSING THE WASTELANDS The Vermilion Crater Twelve miles across, the Vermilion Crater earns its name from its nocturnal glow and the crumbling red wall around its circumference Built of strange, deep-red stone, the wall stands 25 feet tall and 15 feet thick at best, though many areas of the wall have fallen to rubble and ruin The inside of the crater slopes down into terraced tiers with alternating levels of plant life and city ruins Any city buildings are made from the same red stone as the top wall At the bottom of the crater sits a tall, distorted, structure Taking the path through the ruined gates in the wall leads to the first tier First Tier: The largest tier surrounds the top of the crater with common desert plants, all various tints of red and some seeming altered, such as bearing fruit uncommon to them Rodents, lizards, and insects scurry about the plant life Second Tier: The city on this tier remains in good shape with few signs of natural weathering Other than the buildings, there are no signs of former or current inhabitants As above, rodents, lizards, and insects scurry about, though these all seem bigger and redder in color than normal Third Tier: Former orchards and vineyards crowd this tier, but only the largest trees still stand in neat rows Most of the other plants and trees have gone wild, and all now bear large needle-like thorns as well Any bark is now a deep grey and leaves are shades of deep reds and purples A powdery fungus covers all the plants here, releasing spores that, if inhaled over a long period of time, cause hallucinations Fourth Tier: The red-stone farm buildings here have doors too large for humans and too small for pachyaur They may have once been for animal stabling and care Fifth Tier: This plant-tier hosts a thick jungle of plants and vines bearing arrow-sized thorns and scarlet fruits (both very poisonous) Many plants here move their vines or branches and feed on the bright red creatures that live in the jungle Very aggressive and very large crimson and grey worms live here They average 20 feet in length and their hides hold innumerable venomous spines Final Tier: A ruined red-stone city dominates the floor of the crater, surrounding a large fortress The fortress seems to be carved or sculpted from a single, red, metallic crystal, and it radiates heat, making this part of the crater ten degrees warmer than above the crater The buildings here are in worse condition than higher tiers, leaving only a few not in disrepair or ruin Unlike the second tier, though, the inhabitants remain here—desiccated and calcified corpses, clothes and flesh alike colored varying shades of red and rust Coarse, crumbling red sand—from calcified, disintegrating red stone— coats the roads here Rodents, lizards, and insects here are a good deal bigger and more vibrant shades of reds than normal, and their hides now also bristle with venom-coated spines. Inside the central fortress lives a strange creature Its reptilian lower body has six insect-like legs and a long spine-covered tail Its upper body has four large reptilian arms covered in scales and ending in wicked black claws Two smaller humanoid arms with multiple joints reach and flail about from the center of its chest The creature’s head looks like three hairless humanoid heads painfully melted together, each mouth babbling, screaming, or speaking in an unknown language The red calcified dust coats all organic matter and furnishings in the fortress and this tier This is actually a stone-like fungus that communicates with the fortress creature If the creature wishes, it can activate and animate the corpses covered in fungus Destroying these corpses releases spores in a three-foot radius around them; these seep into exposed skin or lungs or eyes The dust slowly kills the new host as the vermilion color spreads over the host body. 119