THE WORMBONES

The Wormbones are a swath of low, dry, cracked hills stretching from Ormpur towards Kormul, sweeping south across the Golden Road and then back towards the river Talar and the northern tip of the Misty Vale like a broken crescent.

The hills themselves are inhospitable, though bandit groups from the Shaar or the Shaareach are known to favor the hills as places to raid out of, and groups of orcish bandits are even known to live within the hills themselves, staging raids from hidden holes and hideouts in the hills.

The land between the hills and Sheirtalar is fertile grassland, becoming drier towards the west and turning to scrubland; it is also an area known for its preponderance of snakes. It supports a few farms and small villages here and there, but little else of consequence.

They are so named for the uncounted number of draconic skeletons that lie strewn within its jagged peaks and valleys. It is claimed that somewhere within the area is the fabled Dragon's Graveyard, where all old wyrms go to die, and where the treasure lodged in their scales during life litters the ground, free for the taking.

Unfortunately, finding this graveyard is more difficult than it would seem, for the whole area is subtly volcanic.  Hot geysers and pools can be found throughout the the hills, often accidentally.  Posionous gases vent from under the broken earth, and the rocky, unsure footing, made worse by sinkholes and underground caverns hidden by only a thin layer of rock and soil, combine to make any exploration hazardous, especially in the east.

It is as though some great serpent twists and lashes tortuously beneath the earth here, or schemes to keep men from finding that which is rumored to lie within the hills.