Dark Ring
Geography
The environment around the Sea of Screams is harsh and unforgiving like the Dark Ring itself. Most of the Dark Ring is covered by deserts. These deserts are characterized by cold winters with snowfall and large rainfalls widely during the winter and occasionally over the summer. The
average Dark Ring desert has short, moist, and moderately warm summers with fairly long, cold winters. The mean winter temperature is between 20 to 34 degrees fahrenheit and the mean summer temperature is between 70-82 degrees fahrenheit.
The winters receive quite a bit of snow with snowfalls in excess of 1 foot being common. The soil is heavy, silty, and salty. It contains alluvial fans where soil is relatively porous and drainage is good so that most of the salt has been leached out.
The plants are widely scattered. These cling to life wherever they can but prefer sticking to shaded areas or underground caves. Many species have evolved to retract their leaves and stem beneath the ground during turbulent weather. The main plants are deciduous and more or less contain spiny leaves.
A vast majority of the animals are burrowers. Several lizards do some burrowing and moving of soil. Even the Rael Deer, the only species of deer native to the Dark Ring, burrow into the soil. Their shovel-like antlers are perfectly suited for scooping away the sand and allowing them to dig for their favorite food, tumors.
Across the Dark Ring the deserts are covered in dark gray sand. This sand, made from crushed igneous rock, is extremely fine. Sometimes after a storm the sand is blown into waves giving it the look of an endless gray ocean.
Flayer Wastes
Far to the West of the Sea of Screams is the flayer wastes. These lands are characterized by red plateaus, composed largely of oxidized ore, that rise from the flat gray sand. Other than the plateaus, there is no cover for miles. Explorers have reported a severe lack of water or natural fauna.
This is due to the mind flayers. They have built great hives inside the numerous plateaus of the wastes. Any animal is quickly picked off by a hunting party. All water was drained below ground long ago with the mind flayers using it to lure unsuspecting travelers.
While the mind flayers wish to expand, the combined might of Doud and the garrison at Bakar limit their raiding capabilities. If one of these two were to fall, the mind flayers would have free access to the Sea of Screams.
Gray Peaks
Separating the Desert of Ash from the rest of the Sea of Screams, the gray peaks are an ancient mountain range. Rounded and snow capped, the peaks mark the separation between civilization and the apocalyptic lands of Doud and the flayer wastes. Undead have been known to have a strong presence in the mountains, particularly during the winter months when the lands are at their darkest.