BLADE MESA At one point in the Middlemarches, fields of lava flow sluggishly toward a central mesa. With thick boots or minor magic, explorers can walk on the cool lava and scale the mesa’s plateau, where thousands of stone-skinned mutant warriors fight a constant battle. These warriors come from tribes that live on the surrounding lava plains. They live on crystal grain and magma fruit. The mutants grow to full maturity within one year. Their most able- bodied men impregnate their large female population before charging to the top of Blade Mesa to kill and die. Women of these Wyld tribes (all functionally identical but discernable by different mineral compositions of their skin) give birth to infants after only a month of pregnancy. Because the women live longer lives (about five years), matriarchs rule the tribes—but they never question the ideal of marching to certain death. The men instinctively know how to use the thousands of bronze shields and weapons they find on the mesa. They enter the fight and soon die, to be replaced the next day by their cousins and in a year by their sons. Should one not die on the field of battle, he would succumb to old age within another year and a half. The eternal war raises some questions. Have the bronze weapons always been there, recycled among war- riors? If so, the weapon must be enchanted because they have never broken or lost their edges. Or does Blade Mesa somehow repair them or produce more? New warriors become able to enter the fray at just the proper rate so the battle never diminishes, the tribes never grow and they always remain balanced against each other. All this suggests a guiding hand behind this Wyld region… or that the Wyld has a better sense of humor than one might imagine. BLADE MESA WARRIORS Description: Disorganized on the Mesa, these war- riors would make a skilled force in battle. General Makeup: A horde of at least 300 men, armed with bronze swords, spears and shields. They eschew both armor and ranged weapons, preferring to meet the enemy face-to-face, kill and die. Overall Quality: Good Magnitude: 5 Drill: 0 Close Combat Attack: 6 Close Combat Damage: 3 Ranged Attack: — Ranged Damage: — Endurance: 5 Might: 1 Armor: 0 (-0 mobility penalty) Valor: 5 Formation: At any given time, at least 10 of these units can be found on each side of the constant Blade Mesa conflict. They cannot actually fail Morale checks in their eternal battle. They always fight in unordered formation.
