Random World Part 9: Rock-People hate you!

Back to some more locations, this time with another area full of monsters organized and ready to murder you, your friends and family. Only this time they're made of rock and can (sometimes) fly.

East of Cryham

It sucks to be in Cryham, in part because the area has a bit of uncanny position of being close to not one but two wastelands of magical bullshit, with only a comparatively small countryside of verdant landscape. Anything else which is fertile is down south and the further you go south the further you go into the jungle.

The Desolation of Taani

Blendowska Desert, Poland

There are two contradictory origins to the Desolation of Taani: one which state that it always was a dry land, flat and rough and born from the mountain cutting the rain's path. The other origin state that this land is one born of human greed. Mythology says that once, mountains which existed between the world of mortal and spirits existed in these lands but 'man grew greedy' and tore down these mountains to the last stone.

• A harsh, dry rocky desert. Not the most lovely of places but it has life of it's own nonetheless. It is comparable to a mixture of the various European desert climates.
• Inhabited by a variety of people, some whose ancestors stretch back to primordial times. Other descend from invaders who assimilated into the people they conquered.
• What little stone still exist consist of horrific, jagged hills where some say restless spirits dwell.
• People trade what they can with Cryham. Many adventurers journey into the dry lands in hope of finding the entrance to forgotten, subterranean temples or pathways into the spirit world where, maybe, mountains still exist. Practical people hold they just get eaten by wild dogs and giant vultures.
• There are nomadic dwarven clans. They are traders and distrusted.
• The people there are at war with the gargoyles.

The Citadel of the Gargoyle Warlord

Stone Citadel by Adrián García.

He is the progenitor of the Gargoyles, some say: one of the oldest spirits of the earth crying out for vengeance against man's greed. Others say he was a sorcerer, once human, now cursed in a prison of stone flesh. Others yet say the Gargoyle warlord is but a title passed on from one monster to another. Either way, in the wilderness rise horrific eldritch spires and the ground splinter to lead into endless, subterranean chasms.

• An area inhabited by horrible monsters with stone flesh called gargoyles.
• The ruler of the area is the Gargoyle Warlord. He is very much a stereotypical 'dark lord' in many aspects, horrific and hidden behind armor and/or a massive black cloak and raising armies of monsters slavishly loyal to him.
• Gargoyles claim the are merely avenging past crimes but anyone who see them raid and destroy believe this to just be excuses.
• These creatures capture humans to be their slaves. Disturbingly a few ambitious would-be warlords are not above allying with these monsters.
• The Converts of Stone are humans who worship the gargoyles and seek to emulate them, using alchemical and magical process to turn both their flesh and hearts to stone.
• They are currently planning to invade the region of the Jungle of Spears called the Illaronga Jungle.

Gargoyles

Born of stone and hate, Gargoyles are monsters with a bitter and cold heart. They do not feel much of anything, safe perhaps hatred. How much of it is justified is up for debate, as many believe the myth of the Gargoyle's creation is a lie perpetrated by the Warlord. Some even believe he was an accident, a malformed and mutated element of stone who somehow tricked other elementals to follow his wicked ways and shape.

• Gargoyles are a form of elemental and have a body made of rock.
• They have monstrous forms but most are roughly humanoid. There are non-humanoid gargoyles.
• The flying Gargoyles form an upper class to both their society and military purely on the basis they have the most mobility and are as such the most efficient raiders.
• There are (supposedly) Gargoyles with more unusual abilities such as being able to transform into dust devils, vomit lightning or acid or even regenerating.
• Gargoyles should be played off as a cross between an evil minion to the dark lord and an mid-'90 White Wolf splat angrily lashing out at perceived wrongness. They are brainwashed minions of a zealot.