Difference between revisions of "Tapoa Island"

{{Village_infobox|villagename=Tapoa|discoverer=Asara, Genwin, Arica, Inuad, and Trevize}}

'''Tapoa''' is an untamed island of scrub desert in the furthest southwestern reaches of the known world. The oppressive heat of the desert overwhelms the wild beauty of the sandy beaches of this distant shoreline. A strange and fearsome monster known as the Vultubus awaits any hardy traveller who climbs to the peak of Tapoa's lone mountain.

Tapoa is located in the [[Sefyric Ocean]] west-southwest from [[Shala-Khulia]]. The island rises steadily out of the shallows that border the southern shore, reaching a central plateau of packed sand surrounded by shifting dunes. The hard ground permits only the most stubborn of plants to grow, except where fine crystals of sea salt have collected in blinding-white mounds. To the northwest and above the plateau, a dark mountain looms ominously. In the shadow of '''Mount Tapoa''', a sandy valley supports a bit more plantlife, fed by a single freshwater spring. A shallow inlet near the northern end of the eastern shore of Tapoa provides the only safe natural harbour.

Though remote and unexplored, Tapoa does support a thriving population of scavengers. Blue sand [[crabs]] skitter across the beaches, a pack of wild [[dingoes]] makes its home on the edge of the desert, and ravenous black [[vultures]] hop across the sands looking for edible scraps. A colony of giant [[sandworms]] burrow beneath the desert sands, waiting to swallow their prey in massive sinkholes. The southern shallows are full of blackfin [[sharks]], and a venomous specimen of giant [[jellyfish]] inhabits a sunken vessel off the southern shore. In the valley beneath Mount Tapoa, a tribe of red [[apes]] flourishes beside the freshwater spring. In a cave on top of the mountain itself, the [[Vultubus]], an oily-feathered two-headed monster picks flesh from the bones of its victims, as it awaits the satisfaction of another grisly offering.