Desert Winds
The majority of the Taebur region is desert, and the desert is getting larger all the time. Year-by-year, it encroaches farther south, eating up what little fertile land there is.
And the desert holds secrets.
Ruins of the Old World lie buried there. Sometimes, the desert winds uncover them. Later, the winds bury them once more. Some have been explored thoroughly; others have remained untouched for generations. Some, like the MedLab Radiation Fields are deadly. Others are...also deadly, but in different ways.
Most people avoid travelling in the desert whenever possible, but the truth is the only way north is through the desert. There's no easy way around it, as the desert covers almost the entire north end of the continent, well beyond Taebur. It's also the case that some commodities, like fuel, can be scarce in Taebur, and some of those ancient ruins just might hold untouched stores of such commodities, and other riches. It was for this reason that, a year ago, when a man named Igor Mezinski approached the Coop in Ardan saying he had discovered the location of one of these "vaults" and wanted help to explore it, the executive council decided to send a group with him. As part of the agreement made with him, the Coop would gain access to any vehicle fuel found along with share of other things.
You and four others were part of this expedition, along with the Igor. The six of you headed northeast from Ardan. It was a long and gruelling journey, but you managed to avoid the worst hazards. Igor's map indicated that it shouldn't have been more than a week's journey, yet two weeks later, there was still no sign of your destination. Your supplies were getting low enough that, if you didn't turn back soon, there wouldn't be enough to make it back. Worse, you were probably getting close to the MedLab Radiation Fields.
Igor, however, was determined to go on. He insisted he had seen the vault and he knew you were close. Your group agreed to continue for only two more days. When you turned back two days later, Igor screamed curses at the lot of you and refused to go back. The last you saw of him, he was still screaming and shaking his fist at you in the distance.
The next day, a sandstorm hit. Your group barely got the shelters up in time. You were in a shelter with one other person, Selma Methul. When it was over, you discovered your shelter had been completely buried, and any attempt to dig your way out just brought more sand pouring into the shelter. All the two of you could do was hope the others were not also buried and would dig you out.
A day passed and air was getting thin, when you heard rustling above you. When sunlight broke through for the first time, you saw that your rescuers were not your fellow Coop expeditionaries. They were a man and a woman with skin the colour of the sand with dull blue stripes. They were tall, thin, and mostly naked. You recognized what they were: Khurvan. They were of the same people Ritar Ayim came from. It was unusual to see Khurvan so far south--unless your group had travelled farther north than you'd realized.
The two Khurvan introduced themselves as Iffy (the man) and Iffa (the woman). They never explained how they had found you, only said that there was no sign of what had happened to your fellow travellers. They gave you food and water and pointed you in the correct direction to get home now that the landscape had changed entirely. Knowing the legends that Khurvan would take great offence to knowing about one of their kind living with outsiders, you and Selma agreed not to mention Ritar to them.
A week later, you and Selma emerged from the desert near Fastur and soon rejoined the Coop. Ritar was excited to learn you'd encountered two of her people, but also a little annoyed that you'd learned nothing about them.
The results of this expedition, along with the incident in the Western Mountains the year before (see Giants in the Earth), have made the council much more reticent about any future expeditions. Some point to the disaster in the City of Cartoons forty years ago as a reminder that the Coop and its members shouldn't stray from their regular path.
For you, the experience has taught you to take greater care in the wilderness.
