The Amber Hills
"The grain hides everything, foxes, blades, bones. But it’s the bandits that worry me most. At least the beasts have to eat. Men kill just to feel something." -Excerpt from a burned trade journal found along the Dwarfshadow Road.
A hundred miles of rolling, sun-hammered fields, the Amber Hills sprawl across northeastern Everwealth like a sea of fire-kissed grain. Nestled between the The Cloudrend Mountains, Lough Icewind, and the treacherous fringes of Boulderrain Woods, this region is a study in contrasts, a place of harvest and hardship, solitude and slaughter. Though dotted with stubborn homesteads and independent farming steads, the Amber Hills remain largely ungoverned and brutally untamed. Its wealth of arable land hides not only roots and crops, but the ambitions of bandits, smugglers, and worse, all of whom lurk amid the maize and the tallgrass, waiting for travelers bold or foolish enough to cross it.
Geography
- Location: Northeastern Everwealth.
- Borders: Cloudrend Mountains (west), Lough Icewind (north), Boulderrain Woods (southwest).
- Terrain: Expansive golden plains, high knolls, low ridges, and forest-pocked hollows.
- Dwarfshadow Road: A vital but dangerous trade route cutting through the region.
- Crag-Teeth Bluffs: Jagged stone outcroppings that pierce through the wheat like claws.
- Glasswind Hollows: Shallow basins where storms settle, often concealing hidden camps.
Ecosystem
The Amber Hills straddle a rare ecological midpoint between arable richness and wild hostility. The land is overrun with hardy grasses, food crops, and thorned grain that attracts everything from towering Brambleboars to warhorse sized Inkfoxes. Small mammals like the Hedgehunters thrive beneath the stalks, while larger predators like Dancers migrate from the Boulderrain to hunt amid the tall wheat. Bandits and beasts compete equally for space, with neither establishing long-term dominion. Scattered groves offer shelter and shade, while underground crevices and dried streambeds form natural ambush points. Fire beetles, rat-crows, and herdshadows follow the seasonal waves of crops and corpse-scents.
Ecosystem Cycles
- Spring: A surge of green and gold; planting begins, but so do small-scale skirmishes.
- Summer: Blazing heat, ripening fields, and the highest spike in predator and outlaw activity.
- Autumn: Harvest begins; banditry explodes as caravans move goods out under little cover.
- Winter: The fields fade to grey. The land falls quiet. Snow exposes every hidden trail and unmarked grave.
Localized Phenomena
- Razorwheat Flare: A type of amber-bladed grain whose edge can cut skin when brushed against. During harvest, the friction generates static bursts that ignite on dry days, creating fields of fire in minutes.
- Whisper Cracks: Deep fissures beneath the wheat that produce strange echoing voices when wind moves through them. Said to be haunted or home to cave-foxes.
- Harvest Veil: A low-hanging, shimmering heat haze that cloaks entire hillsides at dusk, concealing movement and distorting sound.
Climate
Warm and dry for most of the year. Frequent droughts in late summer, punctuated by brief but torrential storms. Winters are short but severe, turning amber fields into frost plains. Lightning strikes during seasonal changes often spark fires in dry wheat zones.
Fauna & Flora
Flora:
Common Wheat, Razorwheat, Amber Potatoes, corn, wild carrots.
Fauna:
Dancers, Inkfoxes, Skyhorn Rams, Bandit-Crows, Brambleboars.
Notable Predators: Packs of Inkfoxes and rogue Steel Bears migrating from the Boulderrain.
Natural Resources
- Amber Potatoes: Durable and high-yield, essential for winter stores.
- Razorwheat: Used for crafting rough cutting fiber and papersteel bandages.
- Wildgrain Alcohol: High-proof drink brewed by fieldfolk, sometimes doubles as disinfectant or fuel.
- Timber from sparse forest copses.
- Bonesoil: Fertile topsoil enriched with blood and decay, rumored to grow anything, for a price.
History
The Amber Hills were once soft borderland between various Dwarfish holdings and Elfese warcamps during The Great Schism. Its strategic openness made it the site of countless forgotten skirmishes, trenches now filled with barley or thistle. Over time, deserters and drifters claimed it as a place to vanish, bringing with them seeds, secrets, and swords. Today, it is a contested zone between the needs of independent farmers, the opportunism of outlaws, and the silent watching of ancient things sleeping beneath its grains. Rumors speak of tunnels below the hills leading into the Cloudrend’s underways, forgotten paths used for troop movement or darker designs.
Tourism
Few come to the Amber Hills for pleasure. Traders pass through warily, always armed. Some mercenary bands patrol for coin, others for targets. Alchemists occasionally sponsor field expeditions to gather razorwheat or bone-crop roots. Wanderers often vanish, either absorbed into bandit circles or lost beneath the sway of the hills.
Alternative Name(s)
The Swaying Reach, The Grain-Murk, Bandit's Bounty, The Yellow Graves.
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