XX Monster Island page 1

Monster Island should only be started as Plot Line and Questing area once a Player Character reaches 4th Level +. The journey there is arduous and can be long if characters are coming from Khromarium. Knowledge of the islands whereabouts is kept secret and only one or two high level NPC's know of it outright They will be the ones to offer the characters charter to go there.

Monster Island is a titanic location shaped by intense volcanic activity. A narrow strip of land, its mountains soar to insurmountable heights over the surrounding ocean, the lower flanks heavily forested with lush jungles. Amongst the dense vegetation lurk several races which prey upon the unusual creatures which apparently thrive in the sultry environment. This chapter gives a general overview of the island, describing its geography, topography, climate and ecology.

Geology and Topography

As a landmass dominated by an oddly curved mountain range that encompasses a narrow crescent of rainforest, the topography of Monster Island is extremely vertiginous. Most of the mountains and cliffs are precipitous, often sheer, and dynamic volcanism has raised the highest peaks to over 5,000 metres above sea level. Since its length and breadth are modest, the dramatic terrain of the island is delimited more by altitude than climatic variation.

The island is actually formed from the combination of four volcanic calderas. In descending order of size these are respectively:

Tane – the Forest Bowl

Half collapsed into the ocean, this remnant of the origi nal sea volcano forms the bulk of the island. Nearly 100 kilometres across, its remaining rim is the main spine arching clockwise from the northwest to the southeast. Sheltered within these walls are the lower altitude jungle regions.

Rangi - the Sky Bowl

The caldera forming the north-eastern part of the island, an offshoot of Tane. Only 60km in diameter, its eroded rim reaches high above all the other ridges; the peaks snow capped due to their extreme height. These mountains enclose and shield the Puna Plateau, forming a massive escarpment where the two craters intersect.

Hina – the Moon Bowl

A modest 30 kilometre sub-caldera formed within Tane bowl, Hina now forms the westernmost extent of the island. Like its parent crater, almost half of the caldera has sunk into the deep. However parts of the western rim still protrude above sea level creating a semicircle of reefs and atolls.

Ruaumoko – the Fire Bowl

Smaller than the other calderas at a mere 10km across, this volcanic upwelling lies offshore at the southern tip of the island. Despite its small size the caldera is still highly active, erupting periodically, sending great columns of ash into the sky and slow moving lava flowing down its growing flanks. As described above, three of the caldera have partially collapsed or worn away, leaving parts of their crater walls heavily weathered into what look like individual mountain peaks connected by sharp-edged ridges. A number of hot springs are scattered along these dormant ranges, fuelled by still functioning geothermal processes. The majority of the island is comprised of basalt produced from the gradual upwelling of lava. The constant weathering of this fine-grained rock is the source of the dark soil and the black sands which ring the island. Out croppings of other types of stone can also be intermittently found on the island, most notably scoria, obsidian and porphyry which are mined for different purposes by the indigenous inhabitants. Sharp-edged obsidian is used for tools and weapons, being considered especially effective against ‘demons’. Scoria has value as a lightweight building material and for use in abrasive scrubbers, whereas porphyry Sea Level is reserved for the creation of temples, statues or finely carved stelae. Surrounded as it is by hydrothermal upwellings (currents of warm water), the island is pummelled with copious rainfall. This has had a significant effect on carving the ter rain into steep-walled valleys and gorges. The prevalence of water is aptly demonstrated by the high incidence of white water rivulets and waterfalls which, whilst scenic, make travelling across the terrain difficult and slow. With the mountainous caldera rims reaching staggering heights, the topography of the island is split into distinct zones segregated by elevation.

Coastline: Cliffs and Beaches

Very little of the coastline is comprised of broad beaches, save for the ring of atolls on the western side of the island, which are the sunken remnants of one caldera where sand has accumulated on the last spurs still above sea level. These beaches are baking hot, especially those formed from the ubiquitous black volcanic sand, relieved only by sea breezes. The majority of the remaining shore line is steep cliffs with dangerous jumbles of collapsed rock where they meet the water. On the eastern coast the cliffs are sheer, but an occasional inlet sometimes forms where a river drops down from the mountains, leaving a narrow ribbon of black sands at their foot. However, pounding seas make these inlets dangerous places to moor a ship and few have a practical path to climb the cleft in the cliffs.

Jungle

Rising from the edge of the beach line up to 1,500 metres are thick dense jungles; hot, humid and often boggy. Most of the jungle fills the central bowl on the western side of the main mountain range. A few miserable swamps exist at the lowest extent, near the cliff edges which drop away into the sea, but as the jungle rises into the foothills it transforms into steep-sided valleys, each carved by its own watercourse and often bisected by deep gorges. The jungles collect most of the rainfall, hammering downpours causing the streams to swell into raging torrents.

Cloud Forest

Between 1,500 and 3,000 metres the impenetrable jungle gives way to more open forest. The atmosphere is cool and damp, precipitation gathered by vegetation via the direct absorption of water from clouds butting up against the mountains. The steeply walled valleys become ever more vertiginous, forcing travel along paths which zigzag back and forth in order to ascend to the edge of the plateau and mountains above the forest.

Plateau

At 3,000 metres is a large plateau, the original floor of the north-eastern caldera. It is circled by the highest mountains on the island, forming a semi-arid region of puna which supports grass and short thorny shrubs. What little moisture there is comes from water melted from the small glaciers which descend from the surrounding peaks. Air temperatures at this elevation are cold, yet being above the rainclouds allows the heat of the sun to warm the land to bearable levels.

High Mountains

From 3,000 to 4,500 metres the mountain slopes become increasingly arid, little growing on the rocky scree slopes save stubby grasses and cacti. The landscape is mostly a jumble of rock and cliffs, treacherous to move across. Avalanches of rock often fall during earth tremors, forming strange dunes of rubble where the mountains meet the plateau below.

Glacial Peaks

At 4,500 metres is the snowline. It is here that the air temperature drops low enough to prevent ice from melt ing year round. Most of the peaks forming the caldera lip average about 5,000 metres. Three particular spurs reach up to 5,200, 5,275 and 5,315 metres respectively; their sides nearly sheer and seemingly driven up from below by titanic forces. What little snow that falls is due to the  condensation of moisture-laden sea winds driven up the slopes. This accumulates to form modest glaciers driven down the fissures in the caldera walls by their own weight.

Weather

Surrounded by warm ocean currents, the island maintains a fairly static temperature year round, varying no more than 10 degrees between the warmest and coolest parts of the year. It has two seasons: a long wet season and a shorter dry period, which are denoted by the prevailing direction of the winds.

Wet season is linked to the warmer periods of the year. The winds come from the south-west, carrying moisture laden air across the land mass, which precipitates out as torrential rain in the lower jungles and higher forest where clouds are driven up against the inner slopes of the ancient caldera rims. Although the heavy rains can be an annoyance, the almost invariable breeze has a cooling effect on the coastline and where it can penetrate the thick vegetation of the slopes and valleys.

Due to the mountainous spine, the windward side of the island receives about 3.5 metres of rain during the wet season, leaving the leeward side comparatively dry with only minor rainfall when the constant breeze shifts to more southerly or westerly directions. Because of this, most inland regions during the wet season experience mostly cloudy weather with intermittent periods of sun.

During the cooler dry season the winds come from the east but grow more erratic in strength. Instead of a con s tant breeze they range from fitful light gusts to tempes tuous typhoons, battering the outer edge of the mountain ranges. Indeed the weather can become so violent that it prevents any large tree growth on the eastern coastline, and the gorges between the upper peaks act as funnels, amplifying the moans and howls of the wind as it tears through them. Fortunately for sailors, the westernmost caldera acts as a safe harbour during the worst of these tropical storms as the windward coast is pummelled by huge waves.

Despite the subtle drop of temperatures at this time of year, the shielding mountains prevent direct airflow from cooling the dense jungles of the interior, causing them to feel more sultry and humid than the wet season. Clouds too are blocked, which enables more sunlight to beat down upon the island. Thus the dry season is the sunniest time of the year.

Beyond seasonal variations of wind and rain, the localised effects of weather mainly depend on the native vegetation and elevation.