Two hexes south, one southwest of Alakran.
In this trackless drift of sand, a traveler may stumble across a single branch from a juniper tree, half-buried, a bracelet of beads tangled in its needles. What's the story?
By the customs of Wahattu, a woman who feels herself wronged or mistreated, and finds no justice forthcoming from a world ruled mostly by men, may cut herself a branch of a juniper tree. Bearing this token aloft, she advances, southeast from Gesshed, into the desert, leaving everything and everyone behind. When she can wade in sand to her hip, she has entered the zone of sanctuary. If she can find the way and survive the journey, she will find asylum in the female city-state of Zigmunus, close by the Scarp, far from the land of men.
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| A juniper tree |
The hybrid female monsters who roam that desert are constrained by duty to allow juniper-bearing women passage, and to persecute anyone else who follows them or strays into the sands. Still, this duty comes with varied reactions to any given refugee. At times, the guardians will test, frighten, or confuse the seeker. Other times they offer aid, or point the way east.
All those legends, and a likely tragedy unwritten and unheard, will jump to the mind of they who know the ways of Wahattu, when they see that lone juniper branch stuck in the sand.
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