Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Finder’s Archives.
In this column, we take some of the lands from Magic: The Gathering and turn them into something you can use for your fantasy games.
The stats given in each entry assumes that you’re using Pathfinder 2 for your games, but they can easily be converted over into any fantasy system. This week we eke out a living with the exiles at the Blighted Steppe.
Blighted Steppe
The blighted steppe was another victim of the cataclysmic events at the blighted cataract, and the effluence of the Immortal Ichor. Where others have seen excesses of life or death, the steppe was largely unaffected by the effects of the run-off from the cataract, but its inhabitants were all affected, and rapidly left, or died off. For over a year, the steppe was devoid of movement – even insects and vermin avoided the area. But this eventually drew the attention of a cloud giant named Argarrin. Argarrin, claiming that he had something in his past that he needed to atone for, set about building a city, a refuge for those who are trying to better themselves – those who are not accepted elsewhere.
Lay of the Land
The blighted steppe is lifeless, apart from plant-life and the City of Exiles. It is a flat area, only grass and weeds, and a few crops grown by the inhabitants of the town. The town itself, however, is only about 2,000 individuals strong, and the buildings are made from baked clay, with a simple earthwork defending it. It is mostly featureless, as all the buildings are roughly the same – even Argarrin’s house only stands out by its sheer height. Around the town, however, is a ring of trampled ground and mud – a firebreak from the seasonal wildfires, and the town’s well is far larger than normal for the town’s size. Everyone in town seems bent under the weight of some form of guilt that they’re trying to handle. Many look to Argarrin for help with overcoming the guilt and becoming better people. As a result, the city is remarkably safe – everyone knows everyone, and there is no need for a militia.
Dangers
The blighted steppe is probably the safest area near the cataract, with Argarrin being the most powerful creature in the area by far. The other threat to one’s safety here is much more low-key however, as the empty open steppes have drawn a strange group of gnolls. Normally gnolls would likely not be drawn to the area due to the lack of food and victims for looting, but these gnolls are led by a religious fanatic who has somehow gotten access to a magical item that seems to provide food and water for them. He is assisted by a priestess of Hunger – Hunger is a minor demon lord, who is using the gnolls to spread her gospel. Hunger doesn’t care for the gnolls, but they’ll make a suitable tool, until she can convince some of the duergar to join her cult. Hunger’s long-term goal is to absorb the Immortal Ichor from the blighted cataract and attain true godhood or failing that, power enough to conquer an abyssal layer.
Kim Frandsen
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