The Dragon's Reach

🏮 The Chronicle of the Sunken Terraces "The ancestors of the Tall-Walkers once carved these earth-steps with precision, turning the mountain into a staircase of mirrors that held the sky’s silver rains for centuries. They called it the 'Eternal Basin,' a place where water never left, and the harvest never failed." For generations, the "Cloud-Steps" were a marvel of harmony. Through a complex network of bamboo sluices and stone weirs, the ancient people managed every drop, ensuring the lowest paddy was as lush as the highest peak. But when the Great Drying began, the sky turned to brass and the rivers retreated into the cracked earth. The mirrors shattered into dust, the green faded to a ghostly brown, and the "Eternal Basin" became a graveyard of parched soil. Now, centuries later, the Beaver Scouts have rediscovered this tiered wasteland. The ancient stones are still there, waiting to hold weight. The channels are carved, but empty. To the Folktails, it is a chance to restore a legendary garden. To the Iron Teeth, it is a vertical engineering challenge of massive proportions. They say a Crimson Dragon now lures around in the hollows of the hills. It is not made of scales and bone, but of the stinging, rusted Badwater that snakes through the ancient river bedding like a blood-red serpent. Its touch withers the bark and poisons the soil, turning the ancestral emerald tiers into a scarred wasteland of dust. To reclaim the land of the lost, you cannot simply build; you must tame the Dragon.