"While any environment can aid the quest for knowledge, some are less suited than others. We will proceed into the great unknown."
Herd the party boldly onward.
"Indeed."
Walk until I can walk no more.
Shamble on.
You leave the safety and relative comfort of the valley. As the great Dune walls slope away around you, you enter the real wilderness for the first time, your organs churning momentarily as a near imperceptible chord strums through you. You have entered the first land octave.
The vista that appears between the two walls is less nightmarish than some might have feared, or in one case, hoped. A huge, gently rolling expanse of pale blue flowers, crowded with leafy stalks, flows up to waist height for miles. The landscape is dotted with the odd tree, small but sturdy oaks for the most part, their boughs shading gentle seats of grass. Large recessions or ponds up to thirty feet in diameter dot the land, the green flesh of the flowers fading a little in the salty-smelling water. There is an uncomfortable balance between the fertile, moist soil and brackish pools,but the faded flowers resolutely cover the landscape. Nestling at the feet of vibrant vegetation, far from the pools and the stunted plants, the sharp-eyed can make out odd organisms, between the size of a bowling ball and an apple, without visible eyes, mouths or limbs, irregularly shaped as cushions or sacks of flour, and covered in tiny bristles. They do not appear alarmed at anyone's approach.
((Hmm. Boring rolls, but oh well))