Elyden Random Plots #4

A prospector is searching in the tainted plains of Hotutaer in southern Tartak. He observes an Atramental Aurora at dusk just before finding a half-buried religious symbol of a deity he does not recognise.
     The next morning he crosses paths with a merchant wearing a softsuit travelling in an ambulant. The two trade supplies, as is common in the region, before parting ways.
     Acid rain forces the prospector to find shelter, where he sees another flaring of the Atramental Aurora. When he continues on his path, ealving the wastelands, he crosses the dead body of the merchant, his ambulat stopped, his supplies untouched.

 

AMBULANT: in the Korachani empire and other ntns. (most notably Parthis), steam-and-shadow-poweded locomotive engines (generally wheeled or tracked, though more exotic varieties do exist) fulfilling various roles, usually as modes of transportation. They take on many forms, from the lavish personal crawlers used by patricians, to the immense tracked land-trains that crawl across the imperial wastelands with trande. Expensive and difficult to maintain, they are the play-things of the rich or industrial workhorses that toil day and night in quarries and manufactories.

HOTUTAER: Atr. tainted region in c S - E Tartak, responsible for the taint of the r. Kharad. The wasteland was first recorded in c. 3250 RM and rapidly expanded N overwhelming the cities of Hakrat and Agdal by c. 3280 and 3288 RM.
     The N of the region is flanked by 5 fortresses, spaced 20-miles apart from each other, each of which bears a large array of siphon engines, whose sole purpose is to stall the region’s advance N. 

SOFTSUIT: suit, echoing ancient suits of full-plate, worn by explorers and scholars travelling through Atr. and Fir. tainted lands. They are commonly air-tight and made from thick leather and lined in lead or asbestos, though the design varies wildly by period and region.