Nightscar Crags

Nightscar Crags

Nightscar Crags rise along the southwest edge of Oblivion Vale, forming a wall of broken stone and sharp ridges. The ground is unstable, and old landslides have erased roads, camps, and watch lines. Movement is slow and dangerous. Many cliff faces hold sealed ruins, locked behind stone plugs and iron plates placed long ago.

Land and movement

The rock is dark and fractured, split by deep ravines and narrow cuts. Old slide scars run across the slopes where whole sections collapsed without warning. Loose stone shifts underfoot, and paths that seem safe can fail overnight after wind or rain. Broken bridges, crushed stairs, and buried roadways litter the lower ravines.

There are no rivers to guide travel. Old routes still exist but often end at collapsed cuts or dead channels that offer no shelter. Movement depends on rope lines, stone markers, and guarded passes near the low approaches. Above these points, routes change constantly. Rescue is rare. Reaching a fallen traveler often costs more lives than it saves.

Control and survival

Any place that still offers water becomes a point of power. Access is guarded, contested, and violent. Travelers do not survive by luck. They survive by permission, secrecy, or force.

Pass commanders close routes when pressure rises. Crews that argue or linger are treated as threats, not victims. Above the patrol line, no authority holds. Survival belongs to those who move quietly, hide supplies, and know when to turn back.

Sealed ruins

Nightscar holds more sealed sites than most regions because it was fought over long before the Drying. Some seals were placed to bury weapons or war vaults. Others were set to contain sickness, forbidden rites, or things that could not be destroyed.

Most seals follow the same pattern. A corridor ends in a stone plug pinned with iron. Marks cut into the metal record who sealed it and what punishment follows if it is broken. These marks are treated as law carved into stone.

Some sealed valleys have secondary blockages. Stair mouths are buried. Vents are bricked shut. These places grow unnaturally quiet. Sound carries too far. Wind behaves wrong. People report dull knocks and shifting pressure behind the stone. Patrol doctrine is clear. Do not investigate. Guard nearby access points and keep civilians away.

People of the Crags

The Crags do not support true towns. They support forts, short-term work camps, and hidden dens. The lower passes are watched. The high ridges remain wild because holding them would drain the March dry.

Bandits and deserters hide in caves and cut tunnels. They kill for survival, not wealth. Many were once escorts or workers who learned patrol habits and weak points. Violence is constant because a witness can doom an entire group.

Smugglers also use the Crags as transfer ground. Hidden caves hold stolen goods and proof of ownership. Fights break out often, because exposure is worse than death.

Night signs

At night, faint lights appear in cracks and high fissures. Some come from smugglers. Others come from minerals in the scar bands. The most feared lights appear near sealed doors. People claim sound follows them from behind the stone.

Whether true or not, behavior changes. Travel happens by day. Camps avoid sealed faces. Lights are kept low to avoid drawing predators or watchers from above.

Role in the Western March

Nightscar Crags serve as both shield and wound. The lower passes protect the interior, but holding them costs lives and resources. Above that line, control ends.

Whoever controls access points controls movement. Every conflict here is about who gets through and who does not. This is why Nightscar remains a place of buried history, hidden crime, and threats that only become known when someone fails to return.