This post was inspired by a prompt in the Worldbuilding Community. It is based on three randomly generated factors, either biomes or fauna. In this case, the random generator created Plains, Mountain and Desert Animals.
Image by ken lecoq from Pixabay
From the Journal of Knotall the Stout, Dwarven Ranger
World's End Mountains Expedition Day 12
My companions and I travelled from Sharrow's Hold by flying carpet. Our goal was an aerial reconnaissance of the fireward side of the World's End Mountains.
Unfortunately, as we approached the foothills, we overflew a low magic zone and were forced into something of a crash landing. The local wildlife was clearly aware of the properties of this region, and we found it was rife with hostile (and hungry) denizens of all kinds.
Poor Ulpio was attacked, paralysed and eaten by a giant scorpion. If was far too large and powerful for us to defeat. Ulpio's valiant but noisy sacrifice allowed us to run to safety while the desert monster dismembered and devoured him alive.
Image by Foto-RaBe from Pixabay
World's End Mountains Expedition Day 14
We continue to skirt the foothills of the mountains, looking right towards the searing plains of the Firewaste Desert and left into the mountains. It is scorching hot, even though the flames of The Everburning Fire are still in the far distance.
The last of our water ran out today. Luckily, we were able to spot and track a small fox-like creature. Following it, the furry little thing guided us to it's lair, a burrow near a pool of fresh water.
We filled our water bottles without a problem, but I could swear the fuzzball laughed at us as we finished. That was the point where the pool showed it had teeth. It turned out the whole thing was the maw of a huge subterranean monster, with the water held in it's mouth as a trap for the unwary. It must have a symbiotic arrangement of some kind with the desert fox.
We escaped with full water bottles, but when the jaws of the beast snapped shut, it swallowed Renver whole. I'm not sure how I will tell his wife of his awful death, or why I cannot bring his body back to her for a decent burial.
Image by Stevie Lee from Pixabay
World's End Mountains Expedition Day 18
We were followed all day today by a desert cat. After our last experience with cute and furry animals from these parts, we studiously ignored it and stuck to our route.
Tariel told me it spoke to her, telling her we should go deeper into the desert to avoid the really big serpent. I think the heat is getting to her; everyone knows cats don't talk.
Image by Darren Coombs from Pixabay
World's End Mountains Expedition Day 18
Tariel died today. She was bitten by the smallest snake you could ever imagine. It was a mere six inches long, but ridiculously venomous. She fell foaming at the mouth and writhing, and was dead within five minutes. We had to leave her where she fell. With only Madarek and myself left of the crew, we had no way to carry her body with us.
That damned cat lied. The serpent was tiny, not huge.
World's End Mountains Expedition Day 19
Okay, the cat didn't lie. The serpent is a dragon, the biggest one I've ever seen. It swooped out of nowhere, snatched Madarek up and swallowed him in a single gulp.
I ran for the mountains. Now, here I am in a cave, almost a crevasse, too long and narrow for the dragon to get into. I can still hear it prowling around outside. I guess it is waiting for me to make a choice between heat, thirst or dragon-death as my preferred way to go.
But I am still putting all this down in my journal. I might find my way out of here alive by some miracle, and get back to Sharrow's Hold as the last survivor of this expedition. Or I might die, and some future explorers might find this journal and learn of the horrors this land hides.
Image by Ingo Jorga from Pixabay
This is the first bit of fiction I've written around a new setting I'm working on, Confluence, a thoroughly weird place where the four elemental planes meet. You can read a bit more about it in a post I did a little while ago - Creating a New Setting - Confluence