Mairse Reeds - Dangerous flora along the Moa Thola River

Mairse Reeds are a type of tall thin plan that grow thickly on both sides of the Moa Thola  and Erando rivers - far, far to the south, almost to the Holabrian Mountains.  The area where these reeds grow is located in both the far eastern part of the Nightside region (on the western banks of the Moa Thola, and along both sides of the Erando), and also in the far western part of the Shale March region.  In both cases, along the banks of the Moa Thola, and along the banks of the Erando, the Mairse Reeds grow in the low lands, and also up in to the Shale Hills and the lower slopes of the Holabrian Mountains.

The vast areas where the Reeds grow is curious in that no other vegetation grows there, and although

it is near to both rivers, the ground remains hard enough for there to be vast mounds and tunnel complexes dug out of it.  In that environment live large colonies of Thri-Kreen.  This race of insect warriors are particularly dangerous because of their mastery of their own weapons - the double bladed gythka polearm and the three bladed throwing chatkhca.  In both cases, the Thri-Kreen are keen to employ a particular type of venom that they make combining their own caustic mandible saliva with a type of think sap or resin that they collect from the Mairse Reeds.  This is then deposited in the tunnels of their underground complexes, and allowed to harden and crystalize into a tough form that allows it to be sharpened into blades, and worked into all sorts of weaponry.

Braving the haunts of the Thri-Kreen in the Mairse Reed jungles are various tribes of Sun King warriors.  They go there to collect Mairse Reeds to make weapons out of, and also to harvest large bundles of the reeds to use in making their strange Mairse Boats.  Collecting a few of the reeds for the use of constructing spears is simple enough, and is seen as a rite-of-passage into adulthood by many clans of the tribes, but harvesting enough reeds to make a boat is an operation that will require all the members of several clans to work together.  First is the harvesting and bundling, then the transport of the reeds.  All the time, the group is subject to attack by Thri-Kreen warriors, as well as rival groups of Sun King barbarians.  A typical harvesting operation will take somewhere between 10 and 14 days to complete.  After the first few, attacks by the Thri-Kreen can be expected almost at any time of day or night (the Thri-Kreen do not sleep).

The Moa Thola is thick with Mairse Reed boats manned by crews of Sun King barbarians.  This is the reason why many of the trading and fishing vessels along the Moa Thola have on board armed contingents, and sometimes even rangers from the Sunguard, there to protect against the hungry cannibal crews of the Mairse Reed boats.

Double-prow Mairse Boat, in the edge of the Shale Hills