Editing DnD Desert Raiders Campaign Natural Hazards (section)

=== OTHER DANGERS ===
Even without the threat of dehydration, heatstroke, or sandstorms, waste terrain can be deadly.


==== Flash Floods ====
Storms or spring runoff from nearby mountains can send deadly walls of water through ravines or along low desert gullies. A flash flood can suddenly raise the water level of an area, filling a dry gulch to the top of its walls. A flood raises the water level by 1d10+10 feet within a matter of minutes. Water washes through affected squares, traveling at a speed of 60 feet or more, unless impeded by slopes or solid barriers. Treat a flash flood as stormy water (Swim DC 20 to avoid being swept away). An additional DC 20 Swim check is required each round to keep the head above water. Characters who stay below the surface might drown (as described on page 304 of the Dungeon Master's Guide), See Aquatic Terrain, page 92 of The Dungeon Master’s Guide, for more about the effects of being swept away.
Along with the hazards of fast-flowing water, the flow uproots trees and rolls enormous boulders with deadly impact. Characters struck by a wall of water during a flash flood must make a successful DC 15 Reflex save or take 3d6 points of bludgeoning damage. A flash flood passes through an area in 3d4 hours.


==== Mirages ====
As air heats up over the desert floor, shimmering convection currents appear. These currents blur and distort features behind them and can even produce optical illusions called mirages. A mirage is formed at the boundary between hot air at ground level and a cooler layer higher up, which acts as a lens to refract light and reflect images of more distant objects. Mirages can disorient travelers in the waste by obscuring landmarks or making distances seem shorter than they actually are.
One can reduce the effect of a mirage by getting to higher elevation, which minimizes the amount of refraction. Of course, this requires not only a place to climb (or a fly spell) but also the ability to recognize what you are looking at. An observer can make a DC 12 will save to disbelieve the apparent image. A character who suspects a mirage gets a +4 circumstance bonus on this save. Once the existence of a mirage is revealed, disbelief is automatic.


==== Getting Lost ====
As discussed in Wilderness Adventures in Chapter 3 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide, adventurers might become lost when traversing various sorts of terrain. Refer to that chapter for more information regarding the chances and effects of becoming lost as well as regaining one's bearings,
Additionally, sandstorms, steam clouds, mirages, trackless lava flows, and glaring sand can easily confuse and disorient characters. Disorientation or even hallucinations from heatstroke can also cause a character to become lost.


==== TABLE 1-6: SURVIVAL DC’s TO AVOID GETTINC LOST ====
Terrain	Survival Check DC
* Badlands 12
* Barren waste 12
* Evaporated sea 10
* Glass sea 15
* Petrified forest 17


==== TABLE 1-7: SURVIVAL DC MODIFERS TO AVOID GETTINC LOST ====
Condition	Survival Check DC Modifier
* Duststorm +4
* Sandstorm +6
* Map -4
* Mist or steam	+2
* Heat shimmer +2
* Glare +2
* Mirage +4
* Trackless* +2
-*See Overland Movement, page 164 of the Player's Handbook.

==== Steam and Mist ====
Although the waste is usually dry, circumstances can combine to produce thick clouds of mist or even steam. Some creatures living in such regions adapt and become able recover the precious moisture from the atmosphere.
Deserts that border coastal areas do not themselves receive much precipitation, but when cooler, moist ocean air encounters the superheated air over the land, water condenses out into a thick mist. During the day, this mist is uncomfortably hot, while al night it is more tolerably warm until it is dispersed by strong winds that kick up as the land cools. In active volcanic regions, hot springs and fissures vent scalding stearn. Lava flowing into a body of water throws up huge clouds of hot mist, as well as showers of stone fragments and ash.
Areas of hot mist increase the effective temperature band by one (see Table 1-1, page 12), as humidity combines with high temperature to keep the body from cooling during the day and conversely moderates the cold of the desert night.
Steam erupting directly from a hot spring, lava flow, or other fiery source is much more dangerous, dealing 1d6 points of lethal damage per round to a creature within (no save). Such steam does cool rapidly in the air, however, and only deals such damage within a 30-foot radius of its fiery source. Beyond 30 feet from the source, the steam is just a warm mist.
Mist or steam obscures vision, providing concealment. If it contains dust, powdered salt, and similar noxious substances, mist also poses the risk of suffocation (see page 304 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide), Toxic vapors mixed with fog acts as an inhaled poison.