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Pricklepaw Hoodoos

Fosbir
Hazardously hot. The rock formations here are too thin and strange to offer reliable shade. Travelers here should be prepared for long periods of direct exposure to sunlight. At night, the wind howls through here with a vengeance.
Description:
For miles in all directions, the badlands are relatively flat and exposed. Then—almost like a mirage—a jagged spike and deep canyon appear. With no landmarks above the horizon line, it can be difficult to find this place even if you're looking for it. If you happen upon it by accident, it's not a very friendly place to unwary explorers.

There are red rocks all over Fosbir, but these red rocks are extra red: wide swaths of carnelian and ochre, crisp ruby, and sharp rust. They also take the form of geological hoodoo formations: worn away by long-gone water, they reach towards the sky in strange spindles and eerie spears. Some even have large stones balancing on top of them, or odd arches as though some strong spirit has come through and poked holes in the earth itself.
Landmarks:
  • Varaska’s Heartstone - At the very center of the strange stone forest is a large and balanced rock, a huge red stone that seems to hang suspended despite gravity's best efforts to topple it. It's said that after a profound loss, Varaska’s heart turned to stone. Rather than carry the weight of their grief, the deity left their stone heart here at the center of the desert, a guidepost (and a warning) for fellow travelers.
  • Whistling Canyons - Eerie, long box canyons that stretch from one end of the region to the other. They take weird turns and have many dead ends. Local legend insists that they are haunted. It isn't the wind you can hear whistling through the canyon: it's Miiaka's wails.
  • Miiaka's Mark - Three deep gouges in the far side of the Whistling Canyons walls. If it's cold enough at night, frost will gather in its grooves until the heat picks back up and the wind blows away the melting ice. Because of the humidity, this section of the canyon often has some kind of foliage despite the harsh temperatures
  • Windbreaker's Woes - At the very end of one of the Whistling Canyons is a sharp turn into what would be considered a safety hazard. It fully cuts off the strong wind and acts as a windbreak, but you don't want to find yourself there unless you wound up in the canyon by accident. It's very difficult to get out of the canyon at this point because the rocks above make reaching the edge for rescue difficult.
  • The Oasis - After someone has been traveling for miles and miles and the heat has started to get to them, with the heat waves dancing off the cracked ground beneath them, the Oasis appears. Some wonder if it is a figment of the imagination. Others say that it is indeed real. Scientists have tried to track down the beautiful area, but to no avail, and as such it is considered an illusion. However, the locals of the outback know how to find the location and often it takes years to be able to track it down. There are those that think it appears to wayward travelers and that Aippaq himself conjures the area to save them from certain doom. Others, the locals, know that the only reason the Oasis is untraceable is due to its geographic coordinate and a compass' inability to read its latitude and longitude.
Lore:
  • Locals warn against the 'pricklepaw' effect: a particularly dangerous type of heat stroke which leads to hallucinations. Nobody needs extra mirages out here.
  • The water of the oasis is often compared to the Tartok's Soul Pool.
  • Miiaka's misery is what is thought to be the cause of the wails one can hear at night. Once a tokota full of love for her family, she lost them all to the canyon. During the day she sings to the heavens to reach their souls, but at night she weeps for their loss and lures others in to cause them to suffer with her.
  • The three gouges in the wall are said to have been made by Miiaka while fighting off a large dinosaur to protect her remaining family that was stuck in the canyon. Gossip says the dinosaur's massive skeleton is inside that wall under the gouges but no paleontologist is willing to risk the danger of working in the intense wind to find out.


Original location inspiration by the7eventhrider, duckgirl34, and EvaEevee
Original art inspiration by ToothyApocalypse