A1 - Ashen Wastes
This place is haunted, echoing with the misdeeds of its past. Everything here is covered in ash and soot and the smell of woodsmoke is constant. Sudden anguished screams or mournful wailing can often be faintly heard in the distance.
[Night time is always filled with fog and woodsmoke, the ground is warm to the touch and the breeze carries ash and fresh embers]
Haunting echos - Hexwide Hazard
Anyone spending any time in this hex is assaulted by its inescapable haunting presence, taking d6 SPI loss. This pervasive horror applies even to those passing through at a gallop.
Over time you can slowly become acclimated to this phenomena, note the lowest value of SPI loss you have received on your character sheet and cap any future loss to that value.
Burntburh - Ruins Location
Formally a large and populous town, now utterly ruined by conflagration, the defensive dykes around its perimeter are the only thing still standing. The once cleared farmland and pollarded willow trees around it are now grown wild and overgrown from dereliction.
Visiting these Ruins causes you to take the full SPI loss from the Haunting echos, but you are more likely to find the interesting items found in this hex [roll twice or double the chance of finding items here].
History
The name of the burh that once resided here has been forgotten, as was the specifics of the mythic forces that destroyed it. All that is known is a great fiery assault occurred, leaving a trail of death and destruction in its wake.
Stories tell that the inhabitants were slain to the last man. Their heads and limbs spiked onto their freshly pollarded willows as a warning to others and to bind their spirits to this place. It is certainly true that you can hear the mournful sounds of the dead more often when nearer to the willows that grow here.
It is clear that no building was spared, each thoroughly shattered and burnt. The systematic erasure of the settlement was clearly intended to be a deadly warning, and the echoes of the fires started that day still serve as a reminder of that warning - even if none can remember what the warning was for anymore.
What can you find here?
Phantom fire - ghostly fires can occasionally be found burning here, you cannot extinguish them and they give no heat, but they will still burn things. The ashes of objects burnt from these fires are said to hold the ghost of the original item.
Eternal embers - in piles of ash some embers still glow, they never extinguish and if carefully collected can be a constant source of heat.
Ghost ash - ghosts can stir up the ash here, giving them temporary form. For those willing to witness them replay their final tragic moments of being burnt alive will lose 1 SPI but can collect the ashes that fall as the ghost departs. They can be used in many rituals involving spirits, often rubbed over weapons to harm them, or used to commune with the dead.
Hauntstone - the baked and soot stained stones of former homes are said to attract and possibly even anchor spirits in place, even when removed from this haunted land. Although many consider taking them to be highly taboo.
Glowing night smog - [Only found at night] patches of fog flicker and glow with an orange flame as if lit by fire. It is possible to contain this within an airtight container, then if reopened during nighttime, it will bring on a smoke filled fog within an hour.
Inscribed shard - a broken fragment of an impressively engraved piece of stone. The Ancient Knight (in Orangegrove Reliquary) seeks these in the hopes of removing the curse on these ruins.
Sparks
Crawling mist
Crackling smokebank
Sooty vegetation
Blackened ground
Sudden anguish
Cinderlaced wind
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