Schlackengravva
Schlackengravva is the harshest land in Dungeonpalooza. Jagged mountains, cutting winds, volcanoes and boulders that randomly fall from the sky conspire to make it the rocky resting place of many unprepared adventurers. The die-hard inhabitants of Schackengravva are mostly sturdy giants and borderline-masochistic dwarves, but unnatural creatures of pure evil have recently begun to ascend from the dwarves' mountain tunnels. Whether they will choose to stay in Schackengravva once they spread to the surface and find out about the randomly falling boulders remains to be seen.
Travellers are most likely to visit northern Schlackengraava, the seat of the Dwarven Empire, but the northmost tip of Schlackengravva is an exception. A portion of the continent's northern coast is inaccessible due to a weird formation of pointed stone spires protruding from the face of the sea. Even at their tips, the spires are no more than 8' apart. No sea vessel larger than a raft can navigate them, making any kind of serious trade military action impossible. This same area of the coast is blocked from the rest of Schlackengravva by a dense mountain range that is almost as deleterious to overland travel as the spires are to sea travel. The mountains, a long stretch of the coast, and (it is rumored) the spires themselves are home to self-sufficient tribes of goblinoids. The goblinoids have never gotten along with the Dwarven Empire, but because their interaction is limited and large-scale warfare is impossible, the two powers continue to coexist, and the rival races prosecute their cold war primarily by roughing up members of the other race who walk into the wrong tavern.
Beyond the stretch of far northern territory protected by the spires, all the land in Schlackengravva north of Axebeard Bay belongs to the Dwarven Empire. The Empire, one of the oldest societies in Dungeonpalooza, is a strict and mighty world power that has honed its all-encompassing legal system to a marvel of efficiency devoid of bias, corruption, recklessness, reactionism, mercy and any sense of humor. While the Dwarven Empire and its powerful military controls its land absolutely, many of the other creatures who inhabit Schlackengravva live in mountain caves just as do the dwarves, and so the dwarves are continually finding rebellious or even undiscovered populations within their borders. The Dwarves handle the neverending task of establishing control over newly discovered caverns with a bounty system. Those who lead Imperial warriors to safe (read: violently spelunked) new cavern systems get a special commission based on the size of the caverns and the strength of its old inhabitants (if any). Bitter humanoid mountain dwellers such as orcs and ogres are known to stock nearby empty caves with traps and guard animals to discourage dwarves and their hirelings from seeking out their communities. Like most plans formed in orcish committee, this scheme has backfired horribly, and the dwarves now have a very good idea of where to find hidden orcish and ogre communities (somebody has to have set those traps, right?)
Until recently, the Dwarven Empire was also firmly in control of the mountains that run alongside the massive Axebeard Bay, the hub of trade for the continent. Within the past 50 years, though, weird creatures have begun to rise from deep tunnels that reach up through the continent's crust and into the dwarven mountain-cities. Demons, pale abberations and monstrous human-looking fiends have all begun to appear in numbers, and a near-epidemic of undeath has spread through the mountains like a wildfire in a forest full of Charcoal Golems. As a result, most dwarven communities have either retreated to the north, to the south, or up into the higher reaches of their mountain-cities, where they have set up fortifications against the invaders from below. Some have suggested that the tunnels lead to submerged temples of ancient gods, to alien planes, or even to the afterlife. In any case, the mountains surrounding Axebeard Bay are increasingly dangerous, and trade has dropped off sharply. Fortunately for locals, enrollment in their legendary fighter colleges is still very high, and the colleges are rapidly becoming the new center of the economy. The most famous of the colleges is The Urferberf Academy for Axemanship, where Master Urferberf Drek teaches apiring fighters from all over Dungeonpalooza the art of the axe. Urferberf and his assistants teach many combat styles, and each class awards its own distinctive sash to its graduates. Students of the school typically feel both a strong kinship and an interclass rivalry between students of different styles.
South of Axebeard Bay, the mountains and harsh, cold winds of central Schlackengravva give way to the volcanoes and harsh, scalding winds of southern Schlackengravva (the randomly falling boulders remain constant, though they are known to be mossier in the north). The Dwarven Empire does not officially hold any land in the south, though it does support colonies there. In contrast to the homogeneous north, the south is a patchwork of dwarf, giant, orc, goblin, human, and magma elf settlements. Each community is small, warlike and fiercely independent, because southern Schlackengravva has nothing to offer to more peaceful communities. The only reason to venture there is to mine rare magical minerals like mithral, to hunt for the red dragon lairs that dot the south, or to do battle in the notorious gladiatorial arenas of the extreme south. Also, it is said that somewhere in the southeast there are naturally occuring firestorms whose aftermaths include rains of molten gold. However, anyone too stupid to think of a better way to make money should probably not be living so close to volcanoes in the first place. All water in the dry south comes from springs of boiling water that are known to become clogged from time to time. Unclogging these springs is known to be the worst job in Dungeonpalooza (aside from employment in the dreaded grimlock brothels of Lice Valley).
ON CLIMATE: No one knows quite why the weather in Schlackengravva is so unnaturally punishing, and the source of the heavy boulders that occasionally fall from the sky is even more mysterious. The leading theory is that some spell or divine act intentionally made Schlackengravva as uninhabitable as possible; this would also explain the sharp spires along the northern coast. Skeptics point out that no god or powerful wizard would be stupid enough to try to run off dwarves with mere falling boulders, and that nothing has been found in Schlaackengravva that would warrant attention from such a powerful being... not yet, anyway.
