“The waste is a monument filled with eternal reminders.”

—Abesukh Habah, a walker in the waste

A walker in the waste embodies the harsh, unforgiving nature of the desert. The waste’s dryness can perfectly preserve a royal city, a wondrous creature, or a towering forest—caught at the very moment of death, before age and decay can spoil it. Maybe you want to protect your chosen environment and warn away those who would intrude. For you, most living things are nothing more than potential exhibits, and your soul is as parched as the sands that surround you.

BECOMING A WALKER IN THE WASTE

Clerics who serve deities of thirst are the most common characters to take levels in this class. You already worship a harsh deity, and the magic of the dry and deadly waste comes readily to you. If you’re a desert druid of a harsh bent, you might take up this path as well.

PLAYING A WALKER IN THE WASTE

However you got here, you’re a loner. You bring the desert with you, and you maintain it where it already exists. Not many understand your pure, dry desire to preserve. They think it is evil or perverse. But you know the truth: Someone needs to keep a record of what was. There is no higher calling.

At times you must join forces, at least temporarily, with others. A loose fellowship of walkers, called the Dusty Conclave, occasionally gathers to discuss mutual threats and plan action for the coming years. You sometimes work with desert-dwelling tribes and groups of druids, rangers, or barbarians to repel those who would threaten your waste and destroy the creation you have labored so hard to craft. You might use fear to coerce such service, but the desert also has its riches, and gold always speaks the right language.

Combat

You are a spellcaster primarily, not trained for hand-tohand combat, but your enemies might underestimate your deadliness in melee. The thickest armor is no defense against your desiccating touch. Just getting close enough to make that attack puts opponents under the effect of your local drought ability, possibly weakening and damaging them. You retain impressive spellcasting power, and once you have created golem servants, direct attacks against you become more difficult.

After you have learned the art of creating salt mummies, you “seed” them about the waste to maintain permanent vigilance. You always have at least one by your side as protection or to strengthen your bargaining position. Your tactics are straightforward: Send in the monster, then use spells and devastating touch attacks against distracted foes. When working with a group, it’s best to maintain your distance so as not to catch your allies in the local drought that surrounds you. You might advance, taking cover from one or more golem or mummy companions, weakening your foes while allies lob in ranged attacks. Alternatively, you might stand back and use pillar of salt to remove your most powerful foe, then let your companions finish off any remaining threats.

Once you have attained the pinnacle of your career, you are a fearsome monster in your own right. Those who do not quail before your terrible presence only hurt themselves when they try to harm you. Your vulnerabilities are few, and the armies of servants you can create keep all but the mightiest challengers from ever facing you. Only the hated touch of water is a true threat—you take extensive precautions to keep it from entering your domain.

Advancement

A walker is not recruited so much as awakened. You are filled with a profound, all-consuming love for the arid beauty of the waste. You would do anything to be closer to that essence, to spread its cleanliness across the world. You spend more and more time wandering the deserts, practicing your magic and growing increasingly acclimated to the environment. Eventually, you encounter another who is equally dedicated to the waste. That one tells you of the fraternity of those who love the desert as you do, and you are introduced to the Dusty Conclave.

If you are deemed worthy of the mysteries, you become a full-fledged walker in the waste and are expected to do the conclave’s work assiduously. This task is not too hard, since all in the Dusty Conclave have the same goal—to spread the waste to every part of the world. You must expand the borders of your patrol and leave clear warnings to all who would interfere. You must defend the waste, whether personally or through the artificial guardians you create. If the conclave calls, you go to war.

Resources

Your own nature leads you down the walker’s path, and you attain the class’s lesser abilities through your own efforts. To craft the sand golems and salt mummies that are so indispensable to your work, you need the ancient lore of the Dusty Conclave. That organization is the source of the special materials needed to create these servants. The Sere Rite of your ultimate preservation also requires the participation of a dry lich, and only these most ancient walkers possess the knowledge of the materials and magic needed for that transformation.

If your patrol is threatened by those who would harm the desert, you are expected to deal with the interlopers. Even a novice in the class has power enough to destroy or dissuade enemies. Against greater threats, the conclave moves together. Each walker has a scarab amulet that is attuned to the others—a mental call for help brings others swiftly. Each sand golem also has such an amulet, and its creator can send the creature to the aid of any other who calls for it.

WALKERS IN THE WORLD

The existence of walkers in the waste offers a way to bring the desert environment to the PCs instead of forcing them to travel to a new location.

Organization

The Dusty Conclave has few members, so each walker patrols a large tract of the waste. They gather at most once a year, usually at midsummer noon to participate in ritual magic, exchange news, and address pressing issues. The conclave also maintains and passes on the knowledge of crafting sand golems and animating salt mummies to those deemed worthy of such knowledge. To demonstrate your worthiness, you must undertake a mission for the conclave. Usually this mission involves furthering the spread of the waste in some way: drying up a village’s water supply to force the inhabitants out, making a pilgrimage and an offering to a desert dragon, or establishing diplomatic ties with efreet or other dangerous waste spirits. If the conclave is satisfied that you have performed the task well, it introduces you to the higher mysteries. Otherwise, the conclave withholds the secrets of mummification and immortality (in game terms, you do not progress beyond 7th level in the prestige class).

NPC Reactions

Most other waste-dwellers fear the walkers. They see you and your comrades as heartless monsters who cruelly destroy life, but they don’t understand. People who inhabit the borders of a waste truly loathe walkers, for it is their land that is most in danger of “preservation.” If a walker is known to have entered the region, the leaders of desertbordering settlements waste no time in assembling a force to combat the threat. Experienced adventurers are in great demand when such a threat looms. Savage desert beings, such as scablands orcs, might offer a form of worship to a walker. They make excellent agents to clear the way of unnecessary life as you approach. Such creatures, though, have little sense of the value of history. Their looting destroys most items worthy of preservation, so they are best used only as shock troops; the more controllable golems can finish the job.

Bhukas hate walkers in the waste with a deep passion. They view such beings as the antithesis of their mother deity, since the walkers seem dedicated to undoing her great works. The presence of a walker is one of the few things that drive this peaceable race to take up arms.

WALKER LORE

Characters with Knowledge (arcana) or the bardic knowledge ability can research walkers in the waste to learn more about them.

DC 10: A terrible creature brings the desert with it wherever it travels.

DC 15: Certain spellcasters devoted to the magic of thirst are able to create new desert and leave behind dried husks of living things.

DC 20: Walkers in the waste are able to create hideous monsters of sand and salt, and the most powerful of them are undead creatures themselves.

DC 30: The walkers form a loose organization called the Dusty Conclave; their goal is to transform the world into desert. The most powerful members of this group are dry liches, undead beings that embody dryness. Their high ceremonies are held at midsummer noon.

WALKERS IN THE GAME

An NPC walker in the waste presents an ongoing threat to civilization, which can form the basis of an entire story arc. Integrating a PC walker into the game is more difficult, since such beings are solitary by nature; however, a party of nongood characters could form the retinue of a walker, traveling together to spread the waste to other parts of the world. Alternatively, adventuring with a walker can appeal even to good PCs if the walker’s goal happens to support a worthwhile endeavor (such as drying up the swamps of evil lizardfolk).

Adaptation

If the idea of a solitary walker in the waste is not appealing as a prestige class choice, you can modify the concept. Instead of heartlessly spreading the desert, the walker is instead an environmental champion, a militant druid dedicated to protecting the waste against the encroachment of civilization or holding off the advance of hostile beings. Such a concept omits the nongood alignment requirement for the class. Such a walker might lead or hire an expedition to defend her homeland, or come to the aid of desert folk who are under attack.