The Red Mountains

A dry country, the Red Mountains are steep, with deep ravines between ridges.  Tall pine and oak forests cover the region, wind whistling through the upper branches.  Their straight trunks would make decent masts, and you could extract pine tar and turpentine from these woods as well.

In the northeast, the mountains end at the sea, a rugged coast with few safe landings.  Several fast-moving creeks flow through the mountains, cascading their way down towards the sea.  A few of them join together into larger streams.

(Alex Lamoreaux)

In some parts the mountains are steep enough to have cliffs of exposed rock, often with gravel scree beneath.  Some stretches of streams are flat enough to form gravel bars, easy crossing points and good places for catching fish.

Wandering through the Red Mountains, you're likely to encounter some of the wildlife and people who live here:

Encounter (d20)		signs
1-5	crows	cawing in the distance, birds in flight, large black feathers, small carrion
6-9	humans	thin columns of smoke, footpaths, distant sounds of talking, barking dogs
10-12	grouse	disturbed soil, striped black and grey/brown feathers
13-15	bats	flying at dusk, squeaking and chirping, tiny black droppings under roosts
16-17	stinging toads	fallen quills, dead coyotes with foam at the mouth and stuck with quills
18-19	coyotes	howls and yelps at night, dog-like tracks, animal bones
20	(d6) 1-3: trout, 4-5: jackrabbits, 6: marmots

The humans of this area are known as the Coyote People, the Kowotiga in their language.  They live in small villages of conical bark huts, usually along streams.  They grow some potatoes, gather acorns, and do a bit of fishing and hunting.  Villages down by the sea make dugout canoes to go out fishing and to trade with the people of the islands some distance out to sea.

(Jean Pawek)

If you've heard of these people before, it's probably because of their weaving skills, making cloaks with geometric designs out of plant fibers.  They also make very good baskets, but those aren't traded as widely.

The Coyote People can generally be recognized by the geometric tattoos on their hands and arms.  Men among them have shaven heads with only a topknot of hair, though you're more likely to meet women first as they're the ones who go out hunting and fishing while the men weave and tend the potatoes.

There's an elven colony not too far down the coast, but they don't trade with the humans anymore, after an incident a few years ago that left both sides wanting revenge.