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Guide	-	Glossography	-	World of Greyhawk

CLIMATE:
TERRAIN: Desert

A territory of unknown extent exists behind the Hellfurnaces,
south of the Sulhaut Mountains. This bleak
desert is the Sea of Dust, the former Empire of the Suel
or Suloise. History tells us that this was once a fair
and fertile realm extending a thousand miles west and
southward, too. The merciless and haughty rulers
engaged in a struggle for dominance and supremacy
over all of Oerik with the Baklunish, and in return
for a terrible magical attack, the Suloise lands were
inundated by a nearly invisible fiery rain which killed
all creatures it struck, burned all living things,
ignited the landscape with colorless flame, and
burned the very hills themselves into ash. Whatever
the truth of this, the place is certainly a desert today,
and endless vista of dust and fine ash in gentle rises and
shallow valleys which resemble waves in the ocean.
This aspect is far less picturesque when the winds
howl and tear the surface into choking clouds which
strip flesh from bone and rise to the clouds, making
vision impossible and life hazardous in the extreme.
Added to this unwholesome environment are rains of
volcanic ash and cinders which are blown from the
Hellfurnaces to DROP upon the forsaken lands that
were once an empire of terrible might. Lejends tell of
strange ruins near the feet of the Sulhauts, and say
that somewhere in the central fastness there still
stands the remains, nearly intact, of what is called the
Forgotten City, lost capital of the Suel Imperium.

There are a few mountain tribesmen in the Sulhauts
who reportedly venture into the Sea of Dust now and
again to obtain treasure from the remains of the cities
and towns buried under the dust. The truth of these
tales can not be est., but there is no doubt that
there are peoples who dwell within the fastness of the
mountain range. Reports of firenewt marauders and
other abominations are not uncommon, but may be
unreliable. Somewhat similar fables tell of a secret
expedition sponsored by the Sea Princes to find and
bring back the loot left in the Forgotten City. If such
an expedition was ever organized and left upon the
journey, no news of its return has ever been had. This
latter tale, though, caused the officials of the Yeomanry to
attempt exploration of the far side of the Hellfurnaces,
and reliable reports tell of at least one
party returning from such a trek, decimated by half,
but bearing strange art objects and jewelry back from
their explorations of the fringes of the Sea of Dust.
More details are not forthcoming from the Freeholder,
of course, and the event happened too
recently to give rise to sub rosa info.
 
 

Dice Roll	Encounter
01-03	Beetle, Boring
04-05	Bulettes (half-strength, sand variety)
06-12	Centipedes, Giant (plus 1-6)1
13-17	Dune Stalkers (1-6)
18-25	Firenewts (near Hellfurnaces only)
26-30	Firetoads (near Hellfurnaces only)
31-39	Jermlaine1
40-43	Meenlocks1
44-45	Men, Characters (extreme west and south only)
46-47	Men, [Nomads] (extreme west and south only)
48-53	Mites1
54-61	Osquips1
62-70	Pernicon
71-77	Rats, Giant1
78-80	Scorpions, Giant
81-82	Snake, Giant, Amphisbaena
83-85	Snakes, Giant, Poisonous
86-88	Snakes, Giant, Spitting
89-93	Snyads1
94-96	Spiders, Huge
97-99	Thoqqua1 (2-4 foot diameter, sand/ash eater)
00	Roll again or choose any creature

¹These creatures inhabit thoqqua tunnels.


The Sea of Dust (GHA)
No one has accurately described the entirety of the
wasteland created by the Bakluni mages. Reports are
sometimes contradictory and always incomplete, since few
have the hardihood to penetrate the region and fewer still
the will to make a study of it. Nevertheless, certain broad
regions may be identified.

The Sea of Dust was first named for its appearance just
west of the Hellfurnaces, where volcanic ash is spread in
gray waves over a land surface now deeply buried. Each
year the Hellfurnaces add new weight to the column of fine
gray dust. What little water makes its way westward percolates
through the bedrock, which is of limestone in those
regions. Unwholesome creatures from the Hellfurnaces
inhabit this sterile wasteland, and have gateways upward
through the ash. These entrances are sometimes disguised
as protrusions of the country’s original limestone. Whatever
treasures the Suel of these parts might once have had
are deeply buried here. No ruins are reported except for
those of a few former mountain towns in what are properly
considered the western Hellfurnaces, and these must long
ago have been looted by fire newts and fire giants, which
are numerous in those parts.

The northern parts of the Sea of Dust are less ash-clogged
and therefore show clearer evidence of the former Suel civilization.
Here may be found the forts that guarded the
passes over the Sulhaut range into Bakluni lands, and farther
into the desert are the remains of walled cities. The
most accessible of these, nearest the Sulhauts, have apparently
been stripped of valuables by various bold scavengers
over the past millennium, but the sites farther into the desert
are less disturbed, in part because they are inhabited
by harpies. It is notable that the architecture of this region
shows the characteristic high angular buildings still
affected by such people as the Sea Princes and the Lendorians.

The central part of the Sea of Dust is the most forbidding
of all, and certainly the most alien. There are dunes of a
white, powdery, caustic material, and the air’s dryness will
empty an unglazed jug in a day or two and cause those who
do not cover their mouths with damp cloth to cough blood.

The white dunes and glassy exposed bedrock also cause
sunblindness in those who fail to protect their eyes with
slitted masks or visors. It is little wonder that the so-called
Forgotten City remains, if not forgotten, at least unfound
in so harsh and discouraging a region. Some would also say
it is unfounded. There are peculiar glassy depressions
which dot the central Sea of Dust and which some claim
correspond to former Suel cities.

Paradoxically it is the most distant part of the Sea of
Dust, the southwest, which is best known. In part this is
because some small amount of rain reaches the Sea of Dust
at this point, and the lands are inhabited by nomads. Some
of the natives show Suelish origins, but the majority are
from farther south: a tall, slender, curly-haired folk with
blue-black skin and slanted eyes. Though not otherwise
hostile, the nomads guard their wells against any outsider
and do not permit so much as a drop to be stolen or sold. The
water is not only difficult to reach, but it has a tendency to
dry up or grow salty as the wells are used more frequently.
The nomads therefore move from one site to the next,
searching for new supplies. When they find a well they
must apply either brute animal force or (in the case of some
tribes) windmills to pull their prize to the surface.

When water does reach the surface of the southwestern
Sea of Dust, either by artificial means such as wells or during
the rare spates of rain in the “wet” season, the result is
most gratifying. The dust of these parts is not alkaline
material or sterile volcanic ash but true dirt, heaped into
great hills: perhaps the once-fertile soils of the former Suel
Empire. It is in any case extraordinarily productive, both
in wild and cultivated plants.

Unfortunately the rich southwestern dust also supports
a number of monsters which burrow through it. Most notable
of these are a nameless wormlike beast which may
exceed 50 feet in length, and an insectlike creature which
rather resembles a cross between a mantis and a centipede
and may be as much as 20 feet long. These are attracted by
soil moisture and by vibrations of humans and livestock,
and present a great hazard. Fortunately they are rare, and
avoid the nomad arrows and spears.

Poor as they may be in other things, the southwest
nomads are rich in gems and gold, the accumulated fortune
of the Suel empire. They regard these as minor ornamentation,
and place much higher value on cattle and vegetables.
The way in which they obtain their baubles is most interesting,
however; the young men dive for them as part of the
rites by which they pass to adulthood.

Dotted about the region are “Ktosor-hep”, or “dustlakes.”
These are expanses anywhere from half a mile to
six miles across in which the dust is charged with a magic
that causes it to take on the characteristics of water. The
grains form a sort of fluid which permits the passage of air
between them but retains them in a single body which supports
waves and boats and swimmers as if it were a true
lake. Unlike water, however, it may be made somewhat
breathable if a fine cloth mask is placed over the mouth
(although strenuous action is not possible under such conditions).
It is therefore possible to descend to the surface
beneath the dust, and there to examine in the dim and
dust-laden atmosphere the ruins of towns and cities, for
each dust-lake seems to have been just such a site before
the Rain of Colorless Fire.

Were a descent into the dim and choking lower reaches of
a dustlake the sole barrier to manhood among the nomads,
there would not be so many “boys” of 30 and 40 years.
Unfortunately for divers a number of other creatures also
live in the soup of particles. Among these are the aforementioned
burrowing worms, which seem to prefer these spots
as lairs. Water pools there in small amounts, and certain
peculiar fungoid life forms are also attracted. Last but not
least there are the abhorrent “osid-mrin,” a man-like race
which according to local legend first built the cities
beneath the dustlakes, and which (again according to hearsay)
have a desire to bring recruits into their new race
through a gruesome operation or transformation. Nevertheless
the rewards are as great as the perils: not only full
manhood in the tribe but also gems and jewelry for decoration
as well as other more civilized treasures which are the
more prized tokens of a dive, such as artworks or books, or
even magical items.

The architecture of the southwestern ruins is notable for
its large domes and tall onion-topped minarets, which occasionally
protrude above the dust and provide a channel
downwards.

Notes to the Dungeon Master
The nomads in the southwest each have type Q treasure.
The “osid-mrin” are meenlocks. Also present in the fertile
dust are purple worms and ankhegs. Movement in the
water-dust is the same as that in water. The bottom of the
dust-lakes will support a wide variety of fungoid creatures,
including myconids in those not infested with meenlocks.

The dust of the central regions forms a strong lye when
mixed with water.
 
 

I was creating a different sort of setting for the underdark, one with some new and some familiar races and monsters.
As with Shadowland and the Sea of Dust I never got to really develop the naw material, save for the Drow.

Cheers,
Gary