| AnswerText | Wikitext | Blood Lake! A fav of mine. The game of telephone is certainly a challenge, but all will be compiled and clarified as things are learned so that everything correctly learned is cemented, to get everyone on the same page. Otherwise, let me break these answers down into bullet points.
- Stop 1: The southern end of "The Woods". There are some gently rolling hills with creeks and rivers in glistening aqua that run through them. They're quite beautiful. Trees are not as dense, but there are pocket forests. The actual location of the #1 on your map is gonna be rife with insects, and these insects will leave nasty bites, even on Augmented Ones. Nothing life-threatening, but imagine a mosquito bite turned up to the nines. Enjoy your rash!
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Along the waterside are deposits of Katalyth for sure, but even more lays beneath the surface of the water in this entire general area. It's not as heavy the further away from the water they get. Animals are largely absent close to the edges of the forest save for reptiles, insects, or birds... I am repeating a lot of the stuff from here, so instead of talking about the destination, I'll focus on the path to get there that you drew!
The path from Karteria to this location as drawn is cutting right through Asphodel Fields, which is described here and in the body of this post. Aside from the skeletal remains of buildings, some of those skeletal remains of people could be found as well. Some of these bodies may be the result of people, maddened with arcane radiation poisoning, wandering out into the muck and meeting a quick death; others may be collections of bones, suggesting the death of families. Just as is true in the "Missing Persons" prompt, sometimes there are strange amounts of these bones? Like, just entirely too many ribs for one or two people. Maybe some vultures came by and picked at it all. Arcane radiation is present in all cases of humans being out here. Aside from what can be gleaned from the "Missing Persons" prompt and other things linked here, this won't yield much more.
- Stop 2: Blood Lake. It might have gotten its name because it's red. Karterians are so creative.
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For sciency types, the color is owing to a natural phenomenon rather than anything insidious this time. Its waters are alkaline, mineral-rich and caustic enough to rival bleach. It's salty in there, and Blood Lake shows dilapidated signs of having once been a spot frequented by humans, with some old logs structured as fences or even guides to help get into the lake. But now, with just how alkaline it's become, critters that die within it or near it seem to become mummified/calcified. Wherever one of these corpses is found, lots of Katalyth grows nearby. But as for anywhere else at the water's edge, there is no Katalyth here. If there are minerals of any kind, it's chunks of salt!
There are smaller bodies of water near Blood Lake that are far less intensely caustic, and owing to that, more pink in color. Once more, no Katalyth in these bodies of water! Lots of clay-like mud, though. Sorry, Gojo.
The route there will be crossing through a lot of those same swampy marshlands, and encountering much of what else is found in Asphodel Fields. The closer they get to Blood Lake, the redder the water.
- Stop 3: The Southern Spires are positively covered in Katalyth. It would be impossible to scale them without touching some directly.
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The Southern Spires are flat-faced mountains that reach tall, with dramatic sides facing the island of Orexis. Katalyth creeps along its surface and even embeds itself in some of these spires on the north side of them. For most of this group, that's all they'll be able to see of them, and climbing its face would be like rock climbing with insanity. The spires at this time of year do not have any snow on them, but there are some stocky trees at its base. Real stocky. Thick trunks, too. Thick enough that they feel like they should be much taller trees, towering and incredibly old. They're a bit strange, frankly: the reason for this growth is arcane radiation, but they're thriving, living, doing well.
Fel, Aves that he is, may be able to fly toward their peaks. The tallest of them is about 13,000ft! Over them is the southern ocean, and the other side of the peaks are even steeper and even MORE covered in Katalyth, as though battered by the ocean's concentration of it. Along the way back to Karteria, welcome to more: Swamp, Mud, Marshlands, and Stink.
None of these locations are the "secret location" hinted at by the intel Brickston found. However, aside from Katalyth deposits, the world is doing swell without being touched by humans, and native flora and fauna are thriving, if a bit weird in general.
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