Maybe you are between portals, maybe you need to cross this desert, maybe your shuttle crashed. In any case, you just noticed:
1. A dessicated corpse, clutching a map. You recognise the markings and signatures as the same guide that gave you your maps. It looks like they have been here a while. Their flesh has been gnawed by insects but some of their gear is salvagable.
2. A tilted tower rises from the sands, on the edge of what was once a lake. The tower is neatly sheared off five stories up, the scattered stones of the upper floors lying where they were thrown by the blast. This is where the cataclysm that dessicated this region occured - humidity has been dropping as you approach; your eyes dry, any open vessel evaporates, animals begin to resist going closer than sight-range.
3. An animated kraken swims through the silty sands, an abandoned war-engine, stitched together with additional chains and mauls the over-ambitious and impractical creator thought might be useful, it roams about its silt basin, unable to drag itself beyond.
4. Dew trappers trudge across the barrens - setting out their arrays of beetle-shells each dawn and duck and carefully scraping the precious moisture into barrels. During the day they shelter, storing their barrels in the deeper cool and travel at night, dragging their skids of barrels behind them. They will trade for their water, holding little else of value.
5. A battle field in the desert. You come upon a line of conflict, a jumble of old bones and armour partially buried. There is a lot to sort through here but a couple of remarkable treasures can be gleaned if you are willing to do the digging.
6. Exposed bones of ancient sea creatures, tumbled together chaotically in the wake of disaster. Some of these have been fossilised with beautiful mineral and gem deposits within them but are bulky.
7. Caves with ancient lore on the walls. Here is the truth of the event that ruined this place, painted on the walls by the last witnesses.
8. Portions of a buried city. Exposed parts are scoured to ruin but beautiful murals and chests with preserved contents can be unearthed with a little effort. Here the challenge is the scale, this place was massive, and was not built on one level. Walking to certain places will trip avalanches that will sweep people away and possibly engulf them.
9. A local pleasure spot - a dune-surfing festival where a wind-mill driven winch hauls people up a hill to plunge down. Everything is temporary, transported in with pack animals. The joyous cries can be heard before they are seen. Hospitality is offered to any who approach along with a gentle insistence to try surfing down the dunes. This is harder than it looks
10. An oasis guarded by a fierce creature trapped here by the encroaching barrens. It is the last of its kind.
11. A treasure hunter, crazed with exhaustion, possessed of handfuls of exquisite gems obviously pried from something. If nursed back to health in place, they can back-track to the rich ruin they had found.
12. Raiders, you see them along the ridgeline, a glint of their watch-glasses betraying their position. They probably want your stuff, your water and you for meat.
