Dead Savanna

Savanna
ProfessorX, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons

Nothing grows here any more. Grey ash, bare trunks, dry beds where rivers ran, and a silence that birds do not break. Only the scavengers have stayed. Warm grassland scattered with trees such as acacias and baobabs, green in the rains and golden in the dry season. It holds the great herds and the hunters that follow them, and the horizon is always far.

Over the year it averages 24 °C.

Hear it

For the table

Ground
open, about 30 km a day on foot
Seasons
21 °C in the heart of winter, 28 °C in the heart of summer
Water
by season
Foraging
nothing

Hazards

  • Crushing heat. At midday the heat wears a walker down far faster than the road. Those who know the land travel at dawn and dusk and rest in the shade.
  • Thirst. Water is far apart and not always where the map says. A day without drinking in the heat is enough to put a traveller down.
  • Wildfire. In the dry season, grass and scrub burn fast, driven by the wind. A fire front outruns a person on foot.
  • Ash wind. The wind lifts the grey ash in a choking curtain. It gets into the eyes, the food, the lungs.
  • Dry beds. Rivers on the map are dry ditches. What water is left is black with ash and tastes of burning.
  • Hungry scavengers. With nothing else to eat, the crows, dogs and rats are bold. They follow the party and test the camp each night.

D&D 5e

Plays as
grassland, fast pace at most
Checks
forage: Survival DC 15 · find the way: DC 5 · search: DC 15
Creatures are spotted at
6d6 × 10 ft
  • Crushing heat. At 38 °C (100 °F) or hotter, anyone exposed without drinkable water makes a Constitution save at the end of each hour, DC 5 then 1 higher each hour, or gains 1 Exhaustion. Medium or heavy armour gives Disadvantage; fire resistance passes automatically.
  • Thirst. Each Medium creature needs about 4 litres (1 gallon) of water a day. Drinking less than half of it brings 1 Exhaustion at the end of the day, which does not go until a full day's water is drunk.
  • Ash wind. (House rule) While the ash blows, the area is Heavily Obscured beyond 30 feet. A creature without a cloth over its mouth makes a DC 11 Constitution save at the end of the day or gains 1 Exhaustion.
  • Dry beds. (House rule) No water can be found by foraging. Ashen water drunk unfiltered gives the Poisoned condition until the next long rest unless the drinker succeeds on a DC 12 Constitution save.
  • Hungry scavengers. (House rule) Each night, unless the watch succeeds on a DC 13 Wisdom (Perception) check, scavengers spoil one day of rations; on a failure by 5 or more, they also bite a sleeper for 1d4 piercing damage.

This work includes material from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 ("SRD 5.2.1") by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at https://www.dndbeyond.com/srd. The SRD 5.2.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.

Pathfinder Second Edition

Plays as (Pathfinder Second Edition)
plains, open terrain, about 32 km a day at Speed 25
Checks
Subsist: Survival DC 15 · Sense Direction: Survival DC 15
Random encounters
flat check DC 12 each day
  • Crushing heat. Temperature bands (GM Core p. 95): from 35 °C (mild heat) travellers tire after 4 hours; from 41 °C (severe heat) they take minor fire damage (1d6 to 2d6) every hour; from 46 °C (extreme heat), every 10 minutes. In high humidity the mild and severe thresholds are about 8 °C lower.
  • Thirst. Without enough water a creature is fatigued; after its Constitution modifier + 1 days without drinking it takes 1d4 damage an hour, which cannot be healed until it drinks (GM Core p. 43).
  • Wildfire. A wildfire front advances up to about 20 m a round in forest, twice that on plains; flames are hazardous terrain (moderate damage, 4d6 to 6d6, plus persistent fire), smoke works like fog and can suffocate (GM Core p. 97).

This product is licensed under the ORC License located at the Library of Congress at TX 9-307-067 and available online at various locations including paizo.com/orclicense, azoralaw.com/orclicense, and others. All warranties are disclaimed as set forth therein. Attribution: this rules layer is based on the following Licensed Material: Pathfinder Player Core © 2023 Paizo Inc., Designed by Logan Bonner, Jason Bulmahn, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, and Mark Seifter. Authors: Alexander Augunas, Kate Baker, Logan Bonner, Jason Bulmahn, Carlos Cabrera, Calder CaDavid, James Case, Eleanor Ferron, Steven Hammond, Joan Hong, Vanessa Hoskins, James Jacobs, Jenny Jarzabski, Erik Keith, Dustin Knight, Lyz Liddell, Luis Loza, Patchen Mortimer, Dennis Muldoon, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Mikhail Rekun, David N. Ross, Michael Sayre, Mark Seifter, Kendra Leigh Speedling, Mark Thompson, Clark Valentine, Andrew White, Landon Winkler, and Linda Zayas-Palmer; Pathfinder GM Core © 2023 Paizo Inc., Designed by Logan Bonner and Mark Seifter. Authors: Amirali Attar Olyaee, Logan Bonner, Creighton Broadhurst, Jason Bulmahn, James Case, Jesse Decker, Eleanor Ferron, Fabby Garza Marroquín, Jaym Gates, Matthew Goetz, James Jacobs, Brian R. James, Jenny Jarzabski, Dustin Knight, Jason LeMaitre, Lyz Liddell, Luis Loza, Ron Lundeen, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, David N. Ross, Michael Sayre, Mark Seifter, Owen K.C. Stephens, Amber Stewart, Clark Valentine, Landon Winkler, and Linda Zayas-Palmer; Pathfinder Monster Core © 2024 Paizo Inc., Authors: Alexander Augunas, Dennis Baker, Kate Baker, Joshua Birdsong, Joseph Blomquist, Logan Bonner, Jason Bulmahn, James Case, John Compton, Paris Crenshaw, Adam Daigle, Darrin Drader, Brian Duckwitz, Robert N. Emerson, Scott Fernandez, Eleanor Ferron, Leo Glass, Matthew Goodall, BJ Hensley, Thurston Hillman, Vanessa Hoskins, James Jacobs, Jenny Jarzabski, Miko Kallio, Jason Keeley, Jeff Lee, Lyz Liddell, Luis Loza, Ron Lundeen, Robert G. McCreary, Philippe-Antoine Menard, Jacob W. Michaels, Dave Nelson, Jason Nelson, Tim Nightengale, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Mikhail Rekun, Patrick Renie, Alex Riggs, David N. Ross, Michael Sayre, Mark Seifter, Chris S. Sims, Amber Stewart, Jeffrey Swank, William Thompson, Jason Tondro, Clark Valentine, Landon Winkler, Tonya Woldridge, and Linda Zayas-Palmer. If you use our Licensed Material in your own published work, please credit us as follows: Biomes, Pathfinder Second Edition rules layer © 2026 Michael Ghelfi. Reserved Material: the names of Biomes and its catalogues, its descriptions, sounds, art and code. Pathfinder is a registered trademark of Paizo Inc.; this site is not published, endorsed, or specifically approved by Paizo Inc.

Adventure hooks

  1. The land died in a single night forty years ago, and an old woman remembers what it was like before. She wants to see one living green thing grow there before she dies, and she has a seed.
  2. A trader crosses the dead land because it is the shortest road and no bandit lives there. Lately someone does, and is taking only water.
  3. The vultures are the only birds left, and they have grown fat. A hunter has followed them to their feeding ground, and found it is not carrion they are eating.
  4. A scholar says the land is not dead but asleep, and wants to wake it. The villages on its edge are not sure they want it awake, because they remember why it fell asleep.
  5. The great herds are late, and the lion prides have turned to the herders’ cattle. The elders forbid killing a lion before the herds return; the young men will not wait much longer.
  6. The hollow of an old baobab is the village water store, sealed with clay. Someone broke the seal and drank it dry, two weeks before the rains, and the footprints lead toward the neighbouring village.
  7. An old guide offers to show the party a waterhole nobody else knows, if they escort his grandson’s bride-price, forty goats, to a village eight days away. The goats have opinions about the route.
  8. A grass fire has swept the plain, and in the ash stands a ring of standing stones nobody remembers seeing. Vultures circle above it all day without ever landing.

What grows here

  • African Baobab (tree). A savanna tree five to twenty-five metres tall with an enormous trunk up to fourteen metres across, bare of leaves for about eight months a year. It grows across the dry, hot savannas of mainland Africa and can store over a hundred thousand litres of water in its trunk. People eat the powdery fruit pulp and the young leaves, press the seeds for oil and twist the bark fibre into rope and cloth. Food of: African Bush Elephant. Gives: Baobab Fruit, Baobab Leaves, Baobab Bark Fibre.
  • Gum Arabic Tree (tree). A small thorny deciduous tree five to twelve metres tall that fixes nitrogen and enriches poor soils. It grows in the semi-desert lands of Africa south of the Sahara, Oman, Pakistan and western India. Cuts in its bark weep gum arabic, Sudan's great export, and its roots and bark give strong cord. Gives: Gum Arabic, Gum Arabic Tree Bark.
  • Kapok (tree). A giant of the tropical forest, up to 60 m tall, with huge buttress roots and a spiny trunk; it flowers while bare of leaves and is pollinated by bats. Native to the American tropics and probably to West and Central Africa, it is held sacred by the Maya and in Caribbean and Surinamese traditions. People take the floss of its pods, oil from its seeds and a light wood. Food of: Goat. Food of: Sheep. Food of: Cattle. Gives: Kapok Floss, Kapok Seed, Kapok Wood.
  • Umbrella Thorn (tree). A flat-topped acacia that reaches twenty metres where water allows and shrinks to a wiry bush in the driest places, armed with pairs of thorns, one long and pale, one short, curved and dark. It grows across the savannas and the Sahel of Africa and into the Middle East, in heat, drought and salty soils. Its coiled pods and leaves feed goats and camels, its bark gives tannin and string, and its wood makes posts and furniture. Food of: Goat. Food of: Dromedary. Gives: Umbrella Thorn Bark, Umbrella Thorn Wood.

Animals

Kept here

  • Cattle (can wound or kill, in herds, by day)
  • Water Buffalo (can wound or kill, in herds, day and night)
  • Goat (dangerous if cornered, in herds, by day)
  • Horse (dangerous if cornered, in herds, at dawn and dusk)

Creatures

  • Skeleton (a threat to the unwary, Challenge 1/4-2)
  • Zombie (a threat to the unwary, Challenge 1/4)
  • Ghoul (a fight to fear, Challenge 1)
  • Giant Vulture (a fight to fear, Challenge 1)
  • Wight (a fight to fear, Challenge 3)

Also met here

This work includes material from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 ("SRD 5.2.1") by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at https://www.dndbeyond.com/srd. The SRD 5.2.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.

To gather

African Buffalo Hide, African Buffalo Meat, Baobab Bark Fibre, Baobab Fruit, Baobab Leaves, Beeswax Block, Cattle Fat, Cattle Hide, Cow Milk, Ostrich Egg, Ostrich Plume, Ostrich Leather, Goat Hide, Goat Milk, Goat Wool, Gum Arabic Tree Bark, Gum Arabic, Honey Comb, Horsehair, Kapok Floss, Kapok Seed, Kapok Wood, Lion Mane, Plains Zebra Hide, Plains Zebra Meat, Spotted Hyena Paw, Spotted Hyena Tail, Umbrella Thorn Bark, Umbrella Thorn Wood, Buffalo Hide, Buffalo Milk, Western Honey Bee Propolis, African Bush Elephant Hide, Crystallized Honey, Elephant Ivory Powder, Green Anaconda Fat, Lion Claw, Lion Tail, Rhinoceros Horn Powder, Black Rhinoceros Horn, Tiger Bone, Tiger Pelt, Agave Leaf, Amaranth Seed, Beetle Wing, Dinosaur Skin, Snake Venom, Enchanted Sugar Pinch, Eucalyptus Leaf, Concentrated Venom, First Morning Dew, Jackalwere Fur, Leucrotta Jaw, Lightning Strike Ash, Whirlwind Heart, Lycanthrope Fur

Beneath

Near the surface the rock keeps the year's mean warmth, without seasons; it warms as one goes down.

At the surface
24 °C
100 m
27 °C
500 m
38 °C
1 km
52 °C
3 km
107 °C

A town here

How large a town this land can feed, what it makes and what it must buy. Build it in Hearth

The same milieu, otherwise

Savanna, Blessed Savanna, Primeval Savanna, Burning Savanna

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