Bonedry- Desert so hot you can't cross without Sandbeasts.

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Uric stood at two precipices, facing the great Bonedry. When his ride would arrive, he would
begin a journey through the harshest lands any man in the Empire could think of, and it was only a
step off a drop he wagered to be seventy feet straight down. For as far as his icy-blue eyes could see,
there was sand and stone, and dead north was the Sundial, perhaps the only civilization he would find
for the next few weeks. Behind him, the border wall of the Empire was well-manned. After all, desert
bandits are the least of the scourges to cross the sand-blasted hell before him.

Uric stood on the border-wall, facing the great Bonedry. The air was treacherously hot, even
before he left the last remnants of civilization. What few patrols of the Empire he saw on his way there
assured him this; Any bandit or beast idiotic enough to cross the Bonedry to the Imperial lands would
be dead or dying before they even tasted bronze. Based on the number of ruined houses and shallow
graves he spied on his way to the wall, he doubted their cocksure ways.
It took nearly a ransom to find someone who knew how to cross the great desert, and twice that
to find someone to return. What little silver he had left was spent on rations, leaving him with just
enough money to start a fight.
When the scout arrives, Uric would begin a journey through the harshest lands any man in the
Empire could think of. For as far as his icy-blue eyes could see, there was sand and stone, and dead
north was the crooked mountain called Sundial, perhaps the only civilization he would find for the next
few weeks.
Scaling down the wall, the warrior-priest nearly fell when he first heard it. Scaling up the wall,
like fifteen picks at a time. Drawing his spear, he saw the beast; Fangs, curved like long sickles, and
thirty long legs. It's body covered in plate-like armor hardened by sun and war. With eyes, soulless and
smooth like a river's stone, it began to circle him, strafing in a near perfect circle. Uric held his spear
firm, but when a whistle sounded out above the click of it's many legs, both of them stopped.
Scaling the same cliff the giant insect did, a tan, lanky man pointed at the beast. “Oh for
fuckssake, look at ya, you overgrown cockroach. First you buck me, and now you try and eat my
client.” He puffs, looking at Uric. “And not even a wealthy client too. Did I spill water, or is it my
lucky day.”
Uric took a moment to take in the scouts appearance. He lacked a right eye, and had been
missing most of his right arm, but was clearly no worse for well in spirits. Quickly stepping over to
Uric, the hook he has in place of a hand snatches his pay from Uric's belt, as the scout gives a sigh.
Looking over Uric with concern, he coughed into his hook. “You're traveling light. Rations, spear and a
holy book? You aren't a murderer, are you?”
Stepping past the desert dweller, he secured his supplies to the monster's saddle. He got a
chance to slip a word in edgewise. “Not yet. I paid for transport, not for an interrogation.” Looking up
at the scout, Uric slapping the side of the monster. “What's the beasties name? Or yours, for that
matter.”
The desert dweller ran his hand along the beast's carapace. “Names? Aren't we friendly now.”
Jumping onto it's back, and gripping the reins of the saddle, he grinned. “Aster, and the lovely lady is
Thar.” Gently pulling on the reigns, the insectoid's fangs clacked, and it tensed.

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Only in the vastness of the Bonedry, did Brother Uric get a true sense for the vastness of the
world he lived in. For as far as the eye could see, there was sand and dunes, broken up only by the
Shattered Spines mountains. Only in the vastness of the Bonedry, would you feel a heat so intense
blood boils. Uric heard it said a man of average consituion could survive for five minutes of direct
sunlight, before being rendered a hyper-ventilating twitching corpse, red as a cooked boar.
And, only in the Bonedry does a trip across these arid wastes cost not a imperial coin to pay the
driver. There was something beautif

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