ASHRINGA

Werehorses for White Wolf’s Werewolf: the Apocalypse 

By Laura M. Henson © 2005

ASHRINGA
Werehorses for White Wolf’s Werewolf: the Apocalypse 

By Laura M. Henson © 2005

Chapter Five
THE HORSES OF TOMESHA : A SETTING

“Indian riddles, teleporting rocks, unidentified flying objects, Charles

Manson-this area has had a lot more going foe it than merely the lowest
elevation and the highest temperatures.”
- Jim Brandon, about Death Valley National Park in “Weird America”.

This chapter is a sample setting for Ashringa characters set in the

deserts of California and Nevada. In it you will find all the information you
need to run a chronicle in Death Valley National Monument and its
surrounding areas. Death Valley was known to the Shoshone Indians as
Tomesha, a word which means “the ground is afire”, and it is a land known
for it’s extremes in temperature, abundance of paranormal phenomena, and
colorful history.

The Death Valley area includes most of the parks in the Great Basin desert. Laying between the
cities of Los Angeles on the west and Los Vegas on the east this area adds up to 3.4 million acres of
designated wilderness, an area of land that is actually larger than the entire state of Oregon! Within the park
are ten named mountain ranges and several large valleys, many of them unexplored. In addition the sheer
size of the area (the National Monument itself covers 3,000 square miles) ensures that several Ashringa
Dwells can inhabit the setting with room to spare!

Death Valley is famous for being the hottest and driest pace in the world. It averages only 1.8
inches of rain a year and summer temperatures in the valleys commonly reach 128 F while in 1913 the
hottest temperature ever recorded was 134 F -in the shade! In 1972 the ground temperature actually reached
201 F, which is hot enough to boil water! At night it ranges from 90 F in the summer to a record of 65 F in
the winter of 1913 (and yes the coldest and hottest records were on the same year) and it often snows in the
higher elevations.

Death Valley’s History

Human History
One cannot truly understand this land of extremes without first knowing its history. During the last
ice age Death Valley was a cool land of woods and plains that surrounded a large lake called Lake Manly.

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Lake Manly was about 116 miles long, 12 miles wide and 600 feet deep. Beginning about 11,000 years ago
the lake began to turn brackish and dry up, by 2000 years ago it had become a mere 30 feet deep. Today it
consists of the many, seemingly unconnected rivers, streams, and hot pools found throughout the park.
Water (as you can see from the color map) is not uncommon in Death Valley. Indeed, one is rarely more
than 15 miles from water, the trouble is finding it! Many streams and rivers dry up in the summer or flow
completely underground while others are so contaminated with salt that they are un-drinkable. Today the
only evidence that lake Manly ever existed is the extensive salt flats that cover what was once the lake bed
and the unique flora and fauna of Death Valley, many of which are descended from aquatic ancestors.

At least four Indian tribes have lived in Death Valley.

The first of these tribes is known only as the Nevares Spring
culture that entered the valley about 7,000 years ago. Other
tribes were the Mesquite Flat culture (3000 to 1 B.C.), the
Saratoga Springs culture (900-1,100 A.D.), and finally the
present day Piute speaking Shoshone Nation who entered the
valley about a thousand years ago. Today the Shoshone live in a
mountain reservation to the south east of the valley. The modern
tribal members are essentially similar to their white neighbors
and know little of their history and lore, indeed their last Shaman
died out in the 1950’s.

The first white men in Death Valley stumbled into the desert by accident in 1849. Several families
led by the Bennett and Arcan (sometimes spelled Arcane) were on their way to the California gold fields
when they left their guide to take a shortcut. Twenty seven wagons went into Death Valley but only one
came out. On the way out the departing survivors of the Bennett-Arcan party stood upon a hill overlooking
the valley which had nearly become their grave. “Good-buy, Death Valley,” murmured one of the women
and the valley received
the name it bears to this day.

Eventually some of the ’49ers returned to the valley in order to prospect for minerals. Prospectors
searching for gold, silver, copper, and lead were doomed to failure for the valley’s ore was too difficult to
prospect in quantity. More profitable were those who came to mine for salt and borax. Borax was a popular
cleaning agent at that time and the famous 20 mule teams were created to haul huge wagons weighing as
much as 36 ½ tons from Death Valley to the railroads in Mojave. This trip took 10 to 12 days one way and
covered 165 miles. Several towns were erected in the valley most of them with reputations as dreadful as
the climate. The boom years were short, within five years a market panic scared off investors and the mines
closed. Today the only reminders of Death Valley’s Wild West days are crumbling ruins, rusting pipes, and
pathetic holes dug in the rocky walls by desperate prospectors.

The most famous resident of Death Valley was undoubtedly Walter Scott, better known as “Death
Valley Scotty. “ In his youth Scotty traveled with Buffalo Bill Cody’s “Wild West Show.” eventually he
married a woman in New York City but by 1905 he had left her to prospect for gold in Death Valley. Later
that year he came out of the valley carrying suspiciously refined looking gold which he claimed to have
found in the Grapevine Mountains. Critics claimed that the gold must have been stolen but they never
found any proof. In the contrary whenever Scotty came to town he caused a great uproar by hiring a
personal train called “the Coyote Special” for $5,000 to carry him to Los Angeles, where he tied up traffic
by throwing gold coins out the windows of his hotel room! How Scotty avoided the heat and deadly
quicksand of Death Valley amazed everyone and when asked all he would say was that the mine’s location
was known only to him and his burro.

In 1924 Scotty became friends with a shy insurance millionaire named Albert Johnson. Together
they built a two million dollar Moorish Castile in Grapevine Canyon to the North of Death Valley. The
castle was massive with a huge swimming pool, ancient medieval furniture, and even a clock tower! Scotty
claimed the money came from his mine but critics said it came from Johnson. When the Great Depression
hit in the 1930’s construction ceased on the castle when Scotty’s ex-wife and the old grubstaker (who had
financed his show business act) tried to sue him for a part of the mine’s profits. In addition the

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Government, who wished to turn Death Valley into a National Monument, tried to evict Scotty. Scotty got
out of the difficulty by claiming that there was no mine (and indeed the mine has never been found) so his
wife could not claim a share of money that did not exist! As for the Government they were flummoxed
when Scotty invoked the old homesteader laws to keep the castle. Scott and Johnson lived in the castle for
the rest of their lives, still coming to town, throwing gold about, and making people wonder.

Death Valley was designated a national monument in 1933. In 1984 it was recognized as a
Biosphere Reserve due to its many unique plant and animal species. It was finally enlarged and upgraded
to National Park status in 1994.

The History of the Ashringa in Death Valley

The first Ashringa in Death Valley were Nhurim who were the kinfolk of the Nevares Spring
culture and the Arctic tarpan. These ancient werehorses opened the Grace of the Ancient Waters on the
shore of Lake Manly about 6,000 years ago. As the tribes came and went from Death Valley the Nhurim
stayed to care for the dwell. At this point the extinction of their horse kin combined with the disappearance
of Lake Manly and the actions of the prospectors caused the bão to abandon the Dwell.

The prospectors did not come alone, however. With the miners came the “miner’s canary,” the
little gray donkey, that carried the prospectors ore. The abandoning of Death Valley after the boom days
resulted in the abandonment of these burros into the park. With the burros came the Nimbi, including
Walter Scott and Albert Johnson. The two Nimbi used their connection with the Faerie folk to borrow gold
from the Elvin city of Shin-au-av. When the government and Scotty’s wife threatened both the Nimbi’s and
the Fae’s safety the two Nimbi traveled deep into the Umbra where they not only awakened the original
Dwell’s totem but also brought forth the spirit of The Great Spotted Roadrunner who was only to happy to
give them advice on outwitting their opponents.

Called by the feelings of fellowship from the newly reopened Dwell, the Nhurim came back to
Death Valley and joined their small cousins. Eventually, as the number of immigrants increased in
California, the other bãos also came to the valley. Some of them promptly opened minor dwells in the great
wilderness but all acknowledged the authority of the old dwell and eventually formed the Tomesha Council
to govern Ashringa affairs in the United States.

The American governments attempt to exterminate wild horses from the National Parks was
finally enacted in the 1980’s. Between 1983 and 1987, over 6,000 burros, 87 horses, and 4 mules were
removed from the park. The government claimed that the equines were overgrazing the grass eaten by
bighorn sheep and fouling waterholes. When naturalist disagreed, pointing out that the sheep inhabit
different mountain ranges than the burros and that burros actually dig waterholes that benefit wildlife, the
government simply claimed it was attempting to make the park look the same as it had before the 49ers had
arrived. To the dismay of officials however new burros and horses moved in from the surrounding parks.
Attempts to remove these horses however have been stifled by the Ashringa who hide the herds whenever a
roundup is scheduled. Today, despite removal attempts, about 200 burros can be found in Death Valley and
an unknown number of burros and mustangs inhabit the neighboring parks.

Flora & Fauna

The abundance of plant and animal life in Death Valley and its surrounding
parks is surprising and, as if to remind visitors that this area was once an inland sea, a
large number of species seems more suited for a wetlands habitat instead of a desert.
This is most obvious with the animals which include six species of pupfish, a shrimp,
and a sea snail which are found nowhere else on Earth. In addition to physical life the
local Indians also peopled the valley with many spirits, most of them of the faerie type.
As for human life, it is mostly confined to tourists.

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Mammals: there are over 50 species of mammal in Death Valley, the majority of them small in size.
Among the most interesting of the Valley’s small game are at least 13 species of bat, one pica, three rabbits
(the Desert, Pygmy, and Bush), one hare (the Black Tailed Jackrabbit), two chipmunks, a marmot, two
ground squirrels, two tree squirrels, one flying squirrel, one gopher, several species of rat (including
Grasshopper Mice, Packrats, Muskrats, Kangaroo Rats, and the tiny jerboa known as the Jumping
“Mouse”), and the unique Inyo Shrew. Carnivores include coyotes, gray and kit foxes, black bears,
raccoons, cacomistles, weasels, badgers, skunks, bobcats, and cougars. Wolves, Jaguars, and Grizzly bears
once inhabited the area but are now extinct. Large herbivores are the bighorn sheep, mule deer, mustangs
(and possibly a few wild Curly horses), and burros.

Birds: several hundred species of bird have been seen in Death Valley. Ravens, roadrunners, hawks, and
golden eagles are commonly seen all year round. Migratory birds visit the park between September and
May. Migrants include flickers, larks, sparrows, phoebes, kinglets, shrikes, pipits, robins, doves, bluebirds,
warblers, swallows, ducks, snipe, cormorants, wood ibis, coots, grebes, great blue herons and swans. On
several occasions even snowy egrets and arctic loons have been seen in the park.

Reptiles and Amphibians: there are five species of amphibian native to Death Valley all of them varieties
of Spade Foot Toad or Burrowing Frog. More typical of a desert climate are the 36 species of lizard
(mostly whiptails, geckos, and chuckwallas) and 18 species of snake. Dangerous snakes are the rosy boa,
sidewinder, and Western diamondback rattlesnake. Gila monsters are almost unknown in Death Valley
National monument, though the species is very common in the southern Kingston Range to the south. The
most common animal in the park is the Californian desert tortoise which is the states National Reptile.

Fish: the normal types of fish native to California can be found in the permanent rivers and lakes of Death
Valley, most of them stocked by the government for fishing. There are, however, six endangered species of
pupfish that can be found nowhere else in the world. These pupfish are all descended from a single ancestor
that once lived in Lake Manly. Today these fish inhabit the boiling waters (the Devil’s Hole species
inhabits water with a temperature of at least 186 F.) of the deserts many hot springs and underground
rivers.

Invertebrates: as a reminder of Death Valley’s past the Californian Fairy Shrimp and the Salt Pan Sea
Snail are the most unique invertebrates in the state. The fairy shrimp abounds in most of the waterholes and
temporary rivers in the Valley throughout the winter. In the summer when this water dries up the shrimp
die, leaving their eggs to hatch out during the next wet season. The sea snail is actually found on land and
survives the lack of water by actually living among the moist roots of the iodine bushes that grow in the salt
pans that once formed the lake bottom. There are no deadly scorpions or centipedes in Death Valley;
however the poisonous Black Widow and Brown Recluse spiders are common. The most dangerous and
irritating animal in Death Valley however is an insect- a type of inch long, disease carrying, blood sucking,
horsefly.

Plants: Death Valley is famous for its many unique species of plants. More than 1,000 species, including
two orchids, six lilies, ten ferns, and over thirty grasses can be found. Many flowers including the Evening
Primrose, Panamint Daisy, and Monkey Flower are found nowhere else. As a reminder of the valley’s wet
past it comes to a surprise to many that over 15% of the plants in Death Valley are cat tails, marsh rushes
and reeds. Cactuses are rare, though the common Beavertail, Prickly Pair, and Barrel cactus do occur. The
most common plant in the mountains is sagebrush but in the valleys this plant is, surprisingly, replaced by
an evergreen shrub called the Creosote bush. Several trees are also native to the valley. Joshua trees are the
most common in the lowlands but along the watercourses one can also find Willows and Cottonwood.
Pinyon Pine (from the seeds of which the natives ground flour) and Juniper can be found between 6,000
and 9,000 feet. At higher elevations these trees are replaced with forests of Bristlecone (the oldest known

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trees, Bristlecone can live for over 3000 to 5000 years) and Lumber Pine. The famous Mesquite tree, from
the pods of which the Indians made fermented drinks and candy, are abundant throughout the area.

Spirits: the Shoshone Indians called the spirit world Na-gun-tu-wip and described many of its residents.
The most common spirits are the faerie folk of Shin-au-av. According to Indian lore the Faerie folk lived
in Shin-au-av a city located beneath the Panamint Mountains near Wingate Pass. The numerous references
to elves in Shoshone lore seem odd until you realize that many of the prehistoric rock etchings in the Death
Valley area show Celtic inscriptions. Even more amazing native lore claims that the faerie originally came
from a distant land and that they escaped to America by riding on shooting stars when their own world
perished. Perhaps this explains some of the UFO reports of the area.

In addition to the faerie folk the valley contains numerous animal spirits, glade children (though
the spirits of the bristlecone are the so old that “glade ancients” would be a better term), Thunder-horses,
Thunderbirds, Eye Killers, Ancestor spirits and even Dragons. As for banes several corrupted Native
American spirits inhabit the area and work with the two local tribes of Black Spiral Dancers. In addition the
proximity of Nellis Air Force Base, the location of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Nevada Test Site for
nuclear bombs, allows for a great variety of Wyrm beasts to appear.

Geography and Umbrascape

Where will you wander, hither and yonder, letting your heart be your guide?
-My Little Pony theme song

The Death Valley area is usually dismissed as ‘lifeless desert” and, while there are nine
campgrounds, it is an odd fact that there are only two maintained trails in the entire park. In addition,
despite the many dirt (and even a few paved) roads, most tourists stick to these two trails. The only other
people in the park are the park rangers who stay at the visitor center and a few Shoshone families that
winter in the valleys but retreat to the cooler mountains in the summer. Nevertheless there are several
places of interest in Death Valley. Some of these areas are known for their history, others for seemingly
unexplained phenomena, and yet others are just plain odd. In the pages below a tour of Death Valley
National Monument and its satellite parks will be given. The portion in regular text is Death Valley as the
mortals know it while text in italics details Umbral features or things known only to the supernatural
denizens of the park.

Amargosa and other rivers (varies)

Several watercourses flow through Death Valley that is remnants of the rivers that once brought
water to Lake Manley. The most notable of these is Salt Creek (2 miles north of Daylight Pass junction),
the Amargosa River (on the border between Death Valley National Monument and the Kingston Range),
and Saratoga Springs (25 miles south of Ashford Mill). These rivers are strictly protected as each one holds
a different species of pupfish found only in that river. The rivers are easily told apart from the other water-
courses in the desert due to the six foot high reeds that border the shores. Animals are commonly
encountered near the rivers and it is the only place where desert holly can be gathered.

Argus Range Wilderness (Directly west of Death Valley National Monument)

The Argus range is a long, narrow mountain chain some 28 miles long but only 5 miles wide. Yet
this tiny area of wilderness is dissected by numerous canyons and steep slopes. The Argus Range is best
known as the source of stone for ancient tools and as a source of Pinyon pine nuts for the local Indians and
as a habitat for bighorn sheep. The area is also riddled with mining roads and trails leading to caverns and
other sites once frequented by prospectors.

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 The umbral Argus Range is noted for an abundance of ancestor spirits of all kinds. It is also the
hunting ground of the Dzoo-no-qua (stone trolls) of native myths.

Artist Drive (7 ½ miles north of Badwater)

This paved road runs one way and winds eight miles through
washes and clay hills. The buff and black hills are streaked and
speckled with red, orange, yellow, green, and purple colors caused by
the oxidation of iron bearing minerals in the soil. The result looks much
as if some crazy artist painted the hills with a dripping brush, thus its
name.

The road through Artists Drive is in place by pattern spiders that spin long threads to try to keep
the traffic going on the proper direction. Off the road, however, this area of the Weaver is quickly
overwhelmed by the Wyld as the dull grey of the road is abruptly replaced by rainbow colored hills. This is
an excellent place to meet rainbow horses or boraks.

Ashford Mill (65 miles from Badwater)

Ashford Mill dated from World War I and is located at the junction of two dirt roads. The land
was first settled by three brothers who staked a claim in the Black Mountains. The brothers sold the land to
a Hungarian Nobleman for $60,000 who in turn sold it to a miller for $105,000. When the new owner
received his shipment of cement to build his mill he found that the Freight Company had sent an extra
cartload of cement. As it would have been to costly to ship it back the miller simply used it to build a 50
ton mill out in the middle of nowhere and waited for a fortune that never came.

Many people have commented that Ashford Mill could double as a fortress, and indeed that is
exactly what it is. The mill was actually built by the Ashringa and Faerie to withstand an attack by Garou
or other supernatural beings. Built to resist both physical and umbral attacks, the mill is used only in the
direst of emergencies.

Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge (Nine miles from Death Valley Junction)

Ash Meadows comprises some 22,000 acres of wetlands and desert that is reached by an unpaved
road leading to the lower end of the Amargosa valley. The Meadows is filled with springs, small
reservoirs, streams and small lakes and it provides the sole habitat for no fewer than 24 species. Only
Crystal Spring (a pool of blue-green water about 8 yards across) and Crystal Reservoir (where boating,
swimming, and fishing is allowed) are open to the public.

The most famous area of Ash Meadows is undoubtedly Devil’s Hole. This rocky tarn is located in
the northeast corner of the refuge, at the base of a range of barren hills. The entire area is closed to the
public and is not signposted or even on many maps. In addition the site is enclosed by a high security fence.
The reason for all this secrecy is to prevent anyone from disturbing the rusty scientific equipment which
monitors the severely endangered pupfish that live in the tarn. In addition to the pupfish, Devils Hole is
also the sole home of a species of beetle, two sea snails (one of which may be extinct), and cave
salamanders.

Once known as Miners Bathtub, Devil’s Hole is a sheer sided cavity in the rocks (10 yards deep)
that leads to a flooded cave system. The opening to the caverns is about 6 feet by 18 feet and no one knows
how deep the tarn is. The temperature of Devil’s Hole averages 186 degrees Fahrenheit and increases the
further down one goes and divers who have tried to find out the depth of the tarn descended for 300 feet
(without touching the bottom) before being forced to the surface by the heat.

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 Devil’s Hole has an interesting history. The Shoshone Indians believed that it was where they left
the third world for the fourth and considered it a sacred site. In the 1960s two divers descended into the tarn
and never returned, presumably lost or cooked alive in the lake’s murky depths. Soon after the divers
disappearance Charles Manson became fascinated with Devil’s Hole. Combining Hopi myth with the book
of Revelations in the Bible, Manson believed that he could escape the law by swimming through the tarn
into the Umbra but Manson was captured before he could make his escape. In 1976, the first court order of
the Endangered Species Act was declared for Devil’s Hole. This order forced people to regulate water
usage in Ash Meadows so that lowered water tables would not expose the shelf where the pupfish breed.
The last time Devil’s Hole was explored was in 1995 when three scientists were sent to count the pupfish.

Devil’s Hole is the entrance to Death Valley’s largest

dwell. The Dwell of the Ancient Waters is reached by walking
through the cave opening, over the platform used to count the fish,
and into the water. Ashringa and others of a spiritual nature will
enter the hot water only to emerge in a moonlit glade bordered by
willow trees and with the moss covered shore of a sparkling lake to
one side. This lake is a representation of Lake Manley as it was
hundreds of years ago with the tarn now a rocky wall, covered
with petroglyphs of horses, birds, and horned serpents, from which
a clear stream emerges from the moss covered rocks and flows
into the lake.

The Grace of the Ancient Waters is a level 3 fellowship dwell under the stewardship of Nyrallar, a
totem spirit of Onionts brood. More recently a second totem, The Great Spotted Roadrunner had also
become part of the dwell. This dwell is run mostly by Nhurim and Nimbi but as it is also the headquarters
of the Tomesha Council all bãos may be found here.

Badwater (16 ½ miles South of Furnace Creek)

At 279.8 feet below sea level this is one of the lowest places
in the world. Its name comes from the fact that much of the water
here is salty and undrinkable. A half mile from Badwater are several
six foot wide saucer shaped mounds of mud rimmed with salt caused
from the evaporation of small pools created from lake Manley. Two
miles north of Badwater is a natural bridge that arches fifty feet off
the ground and beyond the bridge is a great chute of water with a
dozen spillways that have cut a grotto 75 feet deep in the canyon
wall. This scenic area is often photographed by tourists.

The cavern behind the waterfall is frequented by a local charm of Nimbi following the totem spirit
of the Heron.

Darwin Falls (Argus Range)

This is a major tourist spot notable for its ferns, lush vegetation, and a 25 foot waterfall. However
by climbing up the slick, smooth canyon walls (difficulty 8) and following a game trail upstream through
some willow woods one will come to a 140 foot waterfall and a pool that is seldom visited.

Water spirits called Pa-o-has inhabit this hidden pool. In the Umbra one can often see these
mermaids sitting on the shore combing their hair or swimming. The pa-o-has may attempt to drown unwary
tourists and while they can be capricious they are usually friendly to the Ashringa.

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Daylight Pass and Rhyolite (36 miles northeast of Furnace Creek)
Daylight Pass is the main road into Death Valley National Park. Ten
miles up this road brings a tourist to Hell’s Gate, an area so hot it reminded
prospectors of the gates of Hell. Beyond the gate is a ¼ mile trail leading to
Hole in the Rock Spring, a small cave containing a seep of fresh water that has
saved the lives of many a traveler. The main road however leads to Rhyolite,
and important tourist spot. Rhyolite was an important town between 1905 and
1908 but is now a ghost town. The ruins of the schoolhouse, doctor’s office, the
country store and the local jail still stand but the towns most famous building is
its bottle house. The bottle house is a unique building made out of 51,000 beer
bottles. Today the bottle house is open to the public with food and souvenirs for
sale. Other sites in this area include Rhyolite’s Boot Hill graveyard (which lies
one mile south of the town), the gaping hole of an old mine (to the north), and
the ruins of Bullfrog, the site of the deserts first Copper mine to the west.

This area is similar to Furnace Creek, though glass spirits hang about the bottle house and ghosts
are said to haunt Boot Hill.

Devil’s Cornfield (1 ½ miles northwest of Salt Creek)

The Devil’s Cornfield is an area of marshy land that is noticeably

cooler than the rest of the park. This area gets its name from the arrowhead
bushes that grow in peculiar clumps due to erosion of the soil. The stalks of
these plants were once used by the Indians to make arrow shafts, thus their
name. Nearby was once a trading post but it is now nothing more than a canopy
of reeds held together with phone wire.

Stalks from the arrowhead bushes, when awakened, make exceptionally

potent fetish arrows. The exact effect is up to the storyteller but may include an
automatic success to bind a spirit to the arrow, arrows that are -1 difficulty to
shoot or for a target to soak, or causing unshakable aggravated damage to a
certain type of creature. The fae make their elf shot from these arrows.

Devil’s Golf Course (11 miles south of Golden Canyon)

The Devil’s Golf Course is the name given to what was once the bottom
of old Lake Manley 2000 years ago. Today this area is a layer of rock hard salt
crystallized into a jumble of spines and ridges (some as high as two feet tall and as
sharp as knives) that covers some 200 miles of land. Several depressions in the
land may contain salt water if it has rained recently. The only animal life in this
hellish salt pan is a few flies, Desert Sea Snails, the Fairy Shrimp and the very rare
migrating sea bird or flamingo.

The Devil’s Golf Course is infested by Yan-Tups of the foulest nature.

These corrupted undines sit near the few pools of water singing of their lost sea and waiting to poison
foolish mortals with a kiss.

Echo Canyon (2 miles east of Furnace Creek Inn)

Because the road to Echo canyon is composed of lose gravel it is only accessible by jeep so
tourists are rare. This area contains the crumbling ruins of the Inyo Mine Company and a few decaying

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houses which are all that remains of the town of Schwaub. Just inside the canyon can be found one of
Death Valley’s major landmarks. Needle’s Eye is a ten foot triangular hole in the south wall of the canyon
that allows one to see the desert outside as if it is a window.

In the Umbra the area around Needle’s Eye is alive with enigma spirits and anyone who sleeps in
this spot overnight will have a prophetic dream. Schwab is covered with the webs of pattern spiders but the
spirits themselves are rapidly being overwhelmed by the Wyld.

Fall Canyon (Grapevine Mountains)

Fall Canyon starts out wide and becomes narrower as it proceeds upstream. At 2.6 miles upstream
the canyon narrows until it is only 8 miles across before ending at 3 miles at a (usually dry) waterfall. Most
tourists stop here. On the south side of the canyon, about 300 feet from the falls, is an area marked by
cairns. These cairns mark an area that can be scaled using rock climbing skills (difficulty 9) to reach an
area behind the falls where the canyon narrows for about a third of a mile before enlarging again. After
passing several side canyons and climbing many rock formations the canyon opens into a wide valley
covered with pinion, pine, juniper, and other trees. At the end of the valley are the waterfalls headwaters
located beneath the 6,701 foot tall Peak of Palmer Mountain. This valley is rarely reached by tourists and is
abundant in bighorn sheep and other wildlife.

The hidden valley at the base of Palmer Mountain is the location of a charm of Avarim, Killina,
and Nimbi under the protection of the Ram Totem.

Furnace Creek (Directly south of Badwater)

This is an area covering 24 miles that contains the majority of

the tourists that enter Death Valley. It consists of the abandoned
Harmony Borax Works (1882-1888), Mustard Canyon (where rust has
colored the hills yellow sprinkled with so much salt it resembles snow),
The National Park Service Visitor Center and Museum, Furnace Creek
Inn, Furnace Creek Wash (which divides the Amargosa range into the
Black Mountains to the South and the Funerals to the North),
Travertine Springs (once used for a hydroelectric plant), Twenty Mule
Team Canyon, and the mountain of Dante’s View.

This is the main area of the Weaver in Death Valley. A data stream spurts from the visitor center
and pattern spiders crawl everywhere. About once a week or so a foolish pattern spider will try to enter the
park only to be consumed by the Wyld.

Golden Canyon (located 2 miles from Furnace Creek Inn)

This small canyon was the source of the red clay that the local Indians used to make their war
paint. It gets its name from the golden red color of its rocks.

Golden Canyon is a good place to meet ancestor spirits, especially if you are a Nhirim.

Harris-Dayton Graves (1 ½ miles south of the Devil’s Golf Course)

Jim Dayton was a caretaker at Furnace Creek Ranch who died in 1899 while on a trip to get
supplies. Dolph Nevares and Frank Tilton, two of his co-workers found his body and buried him. When
Shorty Harris died in 1934 he requested to be buried beside Dayton. Above the graves is a marker stating

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“Here lays Shorty Harris, a single-blanket jackass prospector”.

The two graves in this area act as “Graves of the Hallowed Heroes” to all the Ashringa in Death
Valley. Other than the body of the two Nimbi, Jim and Shorty, the graves serve as a memorial to the
deceased rather than as an actual cemetery.

Hidden Valley (Grapevine Mountains)

This is a valley nestled high in the Cottonwood Mountains. A road lies through this area but it is
hard to trek and practically untouched by tourists. One side road leads to Lost Burro Mine but the other
leads to an abandoned Asbestos mine which lies on the Mountain crest overlooking Death Valley.

The Asbestos mine is the headquarters of the Black Spiral Dancers who belong to the Hive of the
Poisoned Flesh. These demonic dogs are assisted in their atrocities by U-nu-pits, banes of serpents and
disease. These Wyrm worshiping Garou are planning to turn the rest of the Garou against the Ashringa
much as the Australian Black Spirals turned them against the Bunyip. They have already planted evidence
that the hive is located at Devil’s Hole and will soon begin a plan of terror to bring the Garou to the desert
in numbers. Once the Ashringa are gone Death Valley will no longer have anyone to heal the land and the
desert will soon fall to the Wyrm.

Keane Wonder and Chloride (22 miles north of Furnace Creek)

The ghost town of Keane Wonder is down a dirt road that is passable only if driving slowly. Gold
was found there in 1903 but today the only remains are the foundation of the mill and a rusting bull wheel.
Eight miles from Keane Wonder is the turn to Keane Spring, once the town’s major water source. An old
road once led from Keane Spring’s pump house to the town of Chloride but it was washed away years ago
and is now impassable even by jeep. Chloride boomed from 1878 to 1910 but today the only remnants are
two “houses” dug into the bank of a wash and several wells. Leading from the town are several trails that
lead to Chloride Cliff which gives several views of the valley.

Chloride is a meeting spot for the few Silent Strider Garou which frequent Death Valley. The
Garou came to fight the Black Spirals in the park and are planning to open a caern somewhere in the park.
The Garou and the Ashringa are on ambivalent terms, both bete know that wolves think of horses as prey
yet they will need all the help they can get against the Black Spirals.

Kingston Range (Southeast of the Amargosa River)

The Amargosa River divides this park from Death Valley National Monument and it is notable for
being only 50 miles from Los Vegas. The Kingston range is notable for its mile high mountains that rise
like islands over the nearby lowlands. The largest mountain in the range is 7,323 foot Kingston Peak which
is surrounded by 17 square miles of mountainous land, none of it less than 6,000 feet tall. It is notable for
being the only habitat of the Gila monster in the Death Valley area.

The Kingston Range is important to the Mokole’ as it is the only part of the park where their
animal kinfolk dwell. The local clutch often travels to Death Valley to commune with the Ashringa and
Faerie.

Malpais Mesa (Inyo Mountains)

Malpais Mesa was formed when a volcano exploded and covered the southern end of the Inyo
Mountains. The hard volcanic rock now forms a flat topped, steep-sided plateau covering 32,360 acres.

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Several silver and zinc mines once topped this mesa but most are now abandoned.

Within the umbra Malpais Mesa is the lair of an ancient 90 foot Wakinyan, a type of American
dragon. This spirit is currently sleeping but a renewal of mining may awaken the beast.

Military Bases (On the western, southern, and northeastern borders of the park)

There are three military bases bordering Death Valley, to the west is the China Lake Naval
Weapons station, to the south is the Fort Irwin Military Reservation, and to the northeast is Nellis Air Force
Base. By far the most interesting of these three bases is Nellis as this is the location of Area 51 of UFO
fame. In 1997 the CIA finally admitted that the U.S. military had deceived the American public in an effort
to hide information about high-altitude spy planes. These planes, the Lockheed U-2A and the Lockheed
SR-71, accounted for over half of the UFO reports during the late 1950s and 1960s. The other half are still
unexplained, though reports of “strange sky beasts” are mentioned in some Air Force reports.

Another site of interest, though not actually a part of Death Valley is the Tonopah Atomic Testing
Range. This area of land, located only 80 miles northwest of Los Vegas, is where the US government tested
atomic bombs from 1953 to the 1963. Open air testing ceased when the many Nevada residents and
military personnel sued the federal government because they had never been warned of the health risks of
nuclear radiation. In 1982 the National Cancer Institute looked into these reports and determined that
people as far away as Montana, Utah, South Dakota, and Colorado had been affected with thyroid cancer
that was a direct effect of windblown radiation from nuclear testing. Once this was announced to the public
all bombing ceased in the early 1990s. Unfortunately the Nevada area of desert is now being proposed as a
site to bury nuclear waste as the companies claim that the ground is already contaminated and “just useless
desert anyway.”

The umbral land around all military bases is thickly scared by

the Wyrm and the Weaver. Surviving plants and rock formations are
shrouded with webs and the ground consists of soil blackened with
sulpherous soot and dotted with gaping pits leading to Hellholes or the
lairs of banes. Tonopah is particularly blighted as the very soil glows a
sickly blue and leaks balefire. Tonopah is also the home of the largest
Black Spiral Dancer hive in North America, the horrid Hive of the
Blasted Earth who have a level 4 cairn located at the blast zone.

Racetrack (31 miles southwest of Scotty’s Castle)

The Racetrack is a dry lake bed where stones ranging in size from that of a pebble to 600 pound
boulders apparently move all by themselves. No one has actually seen them move but the furrows scratched
into the soil and records kept by scientists prove that they do move. The furrows range from 34 to 1,200
feet long and may be straight, irregular, curved, or even form complete loops! The only scientific theory
proposed to explain this mystery is that rainwater either makes the sun baked soil slippery or makes it
freeze and then hurricane force winds push the rocks along. Unfortunately for this theory rain (not to
mention snow and hurricanes) is exceedingly rare in Death Valley and some of the rocks form zigzag paths
or in some cases rocks that started out together have moved in opposite directions.

The Racetrack is, of course, actually an umbral playground for the Kai-
nu-suvs, the elves of Death Valley. These mischievous fae have realized that they
can really mess with the minds of supposedly rational mortals simply by moving a
few rocks about. The elves then sit back invisibly and laugh at the appalled
scientists.

Ryan (5 miles from Dante’s View road)

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 This area was once the location of two small towns, Greenwater and Furnace, until 1914 when the
two villages were merged to create the borax town of Ryan. Ryan was an active until 1928 when it was
abandoned. Today all that remains of Ryan is some beer bottles, rusting stoves, pieces of model Ts,
houseless basements and several dangerous vertical shafts (one of them is 1,600 feet deep!). A few of the
larger homes survive in what was once downtown Ryan and they are still occasionally used to house
visiting scientists. Though several roads lead to these towns they are all closed to the public for obvious
reasons.

In the Umbra pattern spiders still inhabit the few intact buildings while the pits are suspected of
housing banes or leading to hellholes or worse.

Sand Dunes (Eureka valley)

The sand dunes are an area of classic Sahara type desert spanning a
full 14 square miles. Wind ripples the surface and occasionally whips up
blinding sandstorms that may last for days. Stovepipe Well on the north edge
fringe of the dunes was once an important waterhole but is now nothing more
than a rusty pump. The road to this pump is unpaved, 3 ½ miles long and
connects between State 190 and Scotty’s Castle Road.

The dunes are the home of a charm of fierce Karkadamm warriors. The totem of this charm is the Desert
Tortoise (cost 3) who gives is children +1 stamina and the gifts Armor of the Tortoise and Lighten Task.
Desert Tortoise’s ban is to protect his species and the purity of the desert.

Scotty’s Castle (36 miles north of Daylight Pass)

Built by Walter Scott and Albert Johnson, this Moorish mansion was
inherited by the Park Services when first Johnson (in 1946) and then Scotty
(in 1954 at the age of 81) died.

Inside the castle are 18 fireplaces, one entire room devoted to an organ, a
living room that features a jasper fountain that splashes into a fish pond, and
elaborate furniture built to resemble antique fixtures from Europe. The outside
of the castle is notable for its weathervane which is shaped like a burro, a 260
foot swimming pool, and the 120,000 railroad ties (purchased when a local
track was torn up) that are stacked against one wall to serve as firewood.
When the original owners died the castle was inherited by the National Park
service who allows guided tours of the building for a nominal fee.

The guides who lead tourists through Scotty’s Castle are all Ashringa or kinfolk who have
converted a few rooms for important visitors. These guest rooms usually hosts the Royal Court of Faerie on
its rare trips to Shin-au-av.

Skidoo (7 miles east of Emigrant Canyon)

Skidoo is a ghost town that can be reached only by a dangerous dirt road. Little survives of this
town except for the graveyard and the abandoned gold mine. Skidoo is unique among Death Valley’s ghost
towns n that it actually was profitable! Six million dollars worth of gold came out of Skidoo before it was
abandoned.

Skidoo is so decayed that the pattern spiders have almost been overwhelmed by the Wyld. Only the

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mine still has active webs. Ghosts may be found in the graveyard but do not commonly materialize.

Surprise Canyon (Panamint Mountains)

Surprise Canyon is located directly beneath Telescope Peak on Death Valley’s western border.
The canyon gets its name from the abundant plant life and water it contains. The road to this canyon was
washed out decades ago and now four wheel drives are needed to get to this part of the park. It is best
known as the location of Panamint City.

The abandoned silver mining town of Panamint was built in 1873 and was abandoned in 1876
after a severe flood killed over 200 people. During the four years of its existence Panamint City there were
50 fatal shootings, a fact that gave this town an ill reputation. When Wells Fargo refused to set foot in the
town local bankers were forced to ship the silver ore across the desert to the railroad in open freight
wagons. They were never robbed because they cast the bullion into quarter ton balls that were way too
large for highwaymen to gallop off with! In 1982 there was an attempt to reopen the silver mine and in the
process much of Panamint City was bulldozed to the ground before the idea was abandoned. All that
remains of Panamint City today is a few houses and the 65 foot chimney that was once part of the ore
smelter.

Unlike the abandoned towns in the rest of Death Valley Panamint City is a true ghost town.
During the day the umbral buildings are home of pattern spiders of the Weaver. At night, however,
Panamint becomes a focal point for the energy of the Wyld. Shocking and brutal visions from the towns
past come to life haunting anyone who stays in the town after dark. It was these ghosts that frightened away
the miners in the 1980s. A path to the Atrocity Realm can also be found here.

Telescope Peak (Death Valley Basin)

Telescope Peak is the one of the two maintained trails in Death Valley. One
of the highest peaks in the area Telescope Peak rises directly from the salt pans to a
height of nearly two miles straight up! The trail passes through a pinion and juniper
forest reaching Arcane meadows 2.6 miles from the trail head. The trail then
continues along many steep, pine covered switchbacks until reaching the top.

In the Umbra Arcane Meadows is a site of great magical power. The common
presence of tourists have prevented the area from being used as a cairn or dwell but
any use of magic (including rites and gifts) gain an automatic success.

Titanothere Canyon (Grapevine Mountains)

This trail is named for its many fossils of the ice age rhinocerotine thunder horses embedded into
the canyon walls. One can use an automabile to get to the base of the trail but drivers must walk the rest of
the way. The trail begins at an 80 foot waterfall that must be bypassed by climbing down a talus slope to
the side of the fall. Here one enters the 50 foot wide canyon. Just beyond this spot is Lost Man Springs
(usually dry but marked by a few cottonwood trees) then the trail leads for 12 miles through Kit Fox Hills
to Scotty’s castle Road.

In the Umbral canyon one can encounter Thunder horse spirits.

Titus Canyon (Grapevine Mountains)

The road to Titus Canyon is closed from May to October because of flooding but turns off the

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Beatty Highway 7 miles east of the California-Nevada border. The walls of Titus Canyon is marked with
petroglyphs of lizards, men, bighorn sheep, circles, crosshatches, wavy lines, suspiciously Celtic looking
inscriptions, and UFO shaped objects. Several of the nearby gravel fans are also marked with 20-30 foot
stone circles and serpentine lines. The Shoshone Indians know nothing about these glyphs and regard them
with superstitious awe and scientists can only assume that they were made by some unknown ice age tribe.
Nobody has deciphered their meaning and in the 18th century sometimes mistook the drawings for
representations of trails and waterholes and got lost tying to make sense of them.

Titus Canyon is an area celebrating the Past. It is a place used as a meeting place for the Mokole’
who here to gather information from each other, the Ashringa, and the Faerie folk. The inscriptions consist
of bete and Fae writing which tells of the history of the various supernatural tribes of Death Valley and
illustrates various umbral features. The stone circles on the other hand are for relaxation and celebration
as they are the rings in which the faeries dance.

Ubehebe Crater (5 miles from the turnoff to Scotty’s Castle)

Ubehebe’s Crater is named after an Indian woman who once lived

near this area but to the natives it was Duh-vee’tah Wah’sah (“the Earth
Mother’s Carrying Basket”) and it was considered a sacred site. The named
crater is actually a pit caused by a volcanic explosion that is a full 500 feet
deep and ½ mile across. Other, smaller craters, one containing a nearly perfect
volcanic cone, can be found to the south of Ubebebe.

As a sacred volcanic area the land about Ubehebe Crater is frequented by salamanders, fire
elementals, and earth spirits. The Ashringa sometimes make offerings to Alma (Gaia) by throwing them
into her basket. This is usually done in the umbra so tourists will not disturb the gifts.

Wildrose (Panamint Mountains)

Wildrose is other maintained trail in Death Valley. This trail climbs 2,200 feet in four miles. The
treeless summit offers a 360 degree view of the entire park. The trail includes several kilns once used as
mining smelters. Around the kilns can be found several tree stumps which have been preserved by the dry
air ever since the loggers cut the trees down for fuel the ovens over 100 years ago.

In the Umbra fire spirits may be found still inhabiting the kilns and weeping glade children sit
upon the stumps and bemoan the fate of their trees.

Wingate Pass (Panamint Mountains)

Originally this area of the park was avoided by the local Indians who believed that a hidden city of
elves called Shin-au-av was located here. The elves were said to have come from a far land on shooting
stars and after they made their homes in the desert they rode bighorn sheep while using coyotes to herd the
parks deer. This lore was dismissed as folklore when the white man came and nearly forgotten.

In the 1880s twenty mule teams pulled multi ton wagons full of borax over a pass in the southern
Panamints. The drivers named the pass “Windy Gap” because of the constant high winds and in time this
name became shortened to Wingate. Wingate met high technology in 1920 when the backers of an Epson
salt mine decided to build a monorail from the railroad in Trona all the way to the mines at Epsomite.
However the monorail was doomed to failure when the first engine proved to be too weak to pull the cars
and the second was so heavy that it sank the A-frames of the rail into the mire of Searle’s Lake!

Later in the 1920s a prospector named white fell through a floor in an abandoned mine in this area.

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He found himself in an underground tunnel that led to a series of rooms filled with hundreds of short,
leather clad humanoid mummies and gold bars stacked like bricks against the walls or piled in bins. White
quickly ran to get help removing the loot but when he came back he was unable to find the tunnel again,
even though he tried several times. Later an Indian guide named Tom Wilson claimed that his grandfather
had wandered into a miles long labyrinth of caves beneath the valley floor that eventually ended in an
underground city filled with tiny, leather clad people who spoke an incomprehensible language.

The little men showed up again in the 1940s when several UFO reports came from the Wingate
area. The most detailed report comes from 1949 when two prospectors witnessed the apparent crash of a
flying saucer. When the prospectors approached the craft two little men leaped from the UFO and fled into
the desert. The miners gave chase but lost the little men in the wilderness and when they returned to the site
of the crash the UFO was gone.

The native Shoshone Indians would not have been surprised by all the stories coming out of
Wingate for a cavern under this pass was said to lead t the faerie city of Shin-au-av. This Umbral city is
inhabited by all sorts of faerie races. Many kiths, including Kai-nu-suvs (elves), Yan-tups (undines), Pa-a-
has (mermaids), and ohdowa (kobolds), may be found in this city. All the odd things that have plagued
Wingate are simply the faerie folk playing tricks on ignorant mortals who attempt to build on their land.
The fae also enjoy harassing the neighboring Nellis Air Force Base, Fort Irwin Military Reservation, and
China Lake Naval Weapons Station, all of whom are infested with UFO sightings and gremlin reports.

Selected Books on Death Valley

Death Valley by Kenneth Alexander.

Ground Afire: the Story of Death Valley National Monument by Laura Nelson Baker.

Death Valley: the Story Behind the Scenery by Bill Clark.

The Geological Story of Death Valley by Thomas Clements.

Death Valley‘s Scotty‘s Castle: the Story Behind the Scenery by Stanley Paher.

The Origins of Inyo http://www.equinox-project.com

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