The North Watch: Chapter Three Preview - The Spawning Pool

A preview of chapter three of my #Southlands sandbox (on my blog - Chapter One ) this #micromapoftheweek is another snapshot of the #narumbekigap

The Green Walker, and its minions, constantly strive to expand their command of the land beyond the borders of the Yawchaka Jungle. On the western border their advance is stemmed by the fires and magicks of the Narumbeki Legions. To the north and south things are more fluid. Creatures and humanoids, controlled by the Walker, are dispatched into the MBazha mountains carrying seedlings, cuttings and pods of the corrupted flora of Kush. When the Legion is not present, the land itself, aware of the violations traveling across the surface, resists as well. Weather, predator or the landscape intercept and kill the couriers, their packages left to dry and rot.

But sometimes the Walker succeeds. In the Greening Valley of the MBazha mountains, minions fall into mountain pools and are swiftly consumed by their deadly cargo. The mutated flora fills the pool and grows beyond, forming a writhing hedgerow about the living-giving waters. Branches and leaves intertwine to form a dam, like such made by beavers, to capture the streams, especially when turgid with snowmelt, and hold the waters through the drier parts of the year.

The plants themselves are relatively defenseless. But unwary animals, who might drink of the downstream runoff, could be pricked by the hedgerow’s vines or may even consume the bright flowers, are turned into warriors for the Green cause. Giant elk or fierce badger froth at the mouth at the chance to defend the Spawning Pool. Their dead foes are pitched into the depths to feed the rotten core at the bottom.