Scorch Alley

Geography

A wide desert valley in the Southwest basks in the sun. Shrubs, yuccas, and aloes are scattered across the land, and mesquite and joshua trees create a pretense of shade. Tumbleweeds occasionally bumble by in the breeze. Scorch Alley is surrounded on most sides by steep 100-foot-high cliffs, and neighbors the Bazen Lowlands to the south, the Shadowglade to the east, and Zymora to the north. It contains multiple steep rock formations near the cliffs: arches, buttes, and a plateau. Scorch River begins at Bullion Falls in the central north and curves southeastward, ending in Glimmer Lake. Crow's Brook, the largest and most centralized town in the Alley, is located next to the lake where a brook of the same name drains toward the Shadowglade. A large, steep canyon called The Scar sits in the center of the Alley.

Demographics

Scorch Alley is filled with a mixture of nomadic tribes and villages. All of them have agreed to live in anarchy together- there is no government or law in the Alley. Justice and enforcement are responsibilites of individual groups. Tribes maintain their own rules and ideals, while villages are defended by their combat-worthy inhabitants. The anarchic nature of the Alley is occasionally threatened by violent invaders or foreign criminals looking to take advantage of the lack of enforcement. In times like these, nearby tribes set aside their rivalries and band together to protect the balance of the free land they call home.
The Alley is one of the most diverse regions in Archestria. Races with a chaotic bent are especially common (or less uncommon), such as tieflings, orcs, and civilized goblins & kobolds. The Alley often becomes home to people with no place to go; thus a notable quantity of its inhabitants are vagabonds, mercenaries, and reformed criminals from other lands.
Martial combatants are very common in Scorch Alley, especially barbarians and rogues. Magic users are somewhat rare.

Features

• The Scar
• Bullion Falls
• Scorch River
• Glimmer Lake
• Crow's Brook (town)
• Crow's Brook (river)
• the cliff lift
• many small camps and villages
• multiple buttes and stone arches
• a plateau

Inhabitants

• Visker (M half-orc)
• Buxton (M human): bully, humiliated
• Buxton's thugs
• Lang (M human): wizard