The Red Sands
A blistering desert of crimson dune and wind-carved sandstone in the province's south-west, labyrinthine with slot canyon and clay ravine. The Ifrit cross it in caravans, and from its oases the Desert Rose rules — the one Faerie in Everdew spoken of as a rival to the Queen.
The Land
Vast fields of fine vermilion sand shift constantly with the dry wind, punctuated by clay playas, barren fairy circles fringed with desiccated grass, and saguaro-studded ridges throwing long shadows across scarlet earth. Steep-walled ravines and flash-polished slot canyons make the region a maze that rewards knowing it.
Its southern rim looks out over the Bloodmoors, and the Vermilion Court is sited to face exactly that way. West lies the Sahel; north and east, the rest of the province.
The Ifrit
Proud nomads swathed in indigo, saffron and ochre silk against the wind, their skin banked with the embers of smokeless fire and their dragon-scaled wings kept covered by day. They navigate by star-path, geometric rune and desert spirit, travelling in caravans mounted on giant burrowing darkling beetles between hidden moisture traps and ancient stone circles.
Their sorcery is subtle and meditative — heat shimmer, dry wind, protective talisman — and they trade glass-craft and desert wisdom with those they judge worthy.
Their leader, the Desert Rose, is a sorceress of such charisma and reach that the comparison to the Queen is made openly in the Emberwaste and nervously everywhere else. It is commonly held that were it not for the standing goblin threat out of the Bloodmoors, she would already have moved on the throne. It is less commonly asked whether the threat is the reason or the excuse.
Encounters
Roll d100. An empty-looking country that is not empty. Water and shade are the whole encounter table's logic. CR is scaled to Faerie size — see Challenge by Size.
| d100 | Encounter | CR |
|---|---|---|
| 01–09 | 1 Ifrit caravan on burrowing darkling beetles, 2d6 strong, trading star-paths | — |
| 10–16 | a sandstorm; the dunes move, and every landmark on your map is wrong for a week | — |
| 17–23 | 2d6 thrips on a bloom in a fairy circle, working before it closes | ¼ |
| 24–29 | a dry moisture trap, and 1d3 travellers who reached it first and found it dry | — |
| 30–35 | 1d4 fire ants out of a dune nest | 2 |
| 36–41 | 1d3 tiger beetles on the playa crust | 2 |
| 42–47 | 1d4 wild darkling beetles, unharnessed and worth catching | 2 |
| 48–53 | 1d2 antlion larvae at the foot of a slipface — you see it once | 2 |
| 54–59 | 1d4 bullet ants at an oasis edge, guarding water they did not dig | 4 |
| 60–65 | 1d3 camel spiders in the slot canyons, where there is nowhere to go sideways | 4 |
| 66–71 | 1d2 bark scorpions, hunted at night for the light as much as the sting | 4 |
| 72–77 | 1d6 Redcap raiders up from the Bloodmoors, testing the southern rim | 5 |
| 78–82 | 1d2 greater camel spiders across open erg, and the caravan cannot outrun them | 6 |
| 83–87 | 1 anole in a saguaro's shade, motionless, patient | 6 |
| 88–91 | 1d2 deathstalker scorpions — the province's standing argument against travel | 8 |
| 92–94 | 1 fence lizard on wind-carved sandstone above a slot | 10 |
| 95–96 | 1 lesser snake in a slot canyon, unhurried and unavoidable | 14 |
| 97–98 | 1 garter snake at an oasis margin, hunting the drinkers | 18 |
| 99–00 | 1 hawk over the erg, with a hundred miles and nothing to hide under | 20 |