Bandit Wastes

The Bandit Wastes were an expanse of barrens or badlands in southwest Faerûn, lying between Lapaliiya and Halruaa.

Geography
They lay in the northern shadow of the Nathaghal Mountains of Halruaa, with the two linked by the Bandit Pass through the range. To the north lay the Dun Hills, the Misty Vale, and the River Talar and Channath Vale at the eastern end. Their western edge marked Lapaliiya's southeastern border,  where the land grew fertile enough to support Lapaliiya's southern vineyards.

Here, the land was desolate and barren with scarce water or vegetation to be found, and almost no shade against the hot weather and sun. The terrain was rocky and rough, with stretches of dusty plains divided by jagged ranges and ravines and dry streambeds.

Fauna
There were all kinds of monsters. Among them were giant ants, which dug a warren of tunnels beneath the barrens.

Inhabitants
Few people came here unless they had to, and they didn't tarry. Those who did tended not to last very long.

Yet enough did to earn the Bandit Wastes its name. Outlaws escaping the authorities of Halruaa, Lapaliiya, and the Shaar usually came here, probably if they had nowhere else to go. Turning to banditry, they preyed on the surrounding lands; pack after pack of them went through the Nathaghal Mountains to trouble the Halruaans. The Lapaliiyan soldiers of Lapalgard often patrolled the Bandit Wastes to guard against them.

Around 1373 DR, the most savage of these raiders were the Blood Screamers, a gang of dire weremole gnomes. They lived in the giant-ant-dug tunnels in the western end of the Bandit Wastes, east of Lapalgard and launched raids all the way to the Nath in Halruaa and the Rathgaunt Hills at the end of the Channath Vale in the Shaar. They terrorized and preyed upon all living creatures they caught and had been an ever-present enemy of the gnomes who lived in these places for decades up to the early 1370s DR. Many courageous gnome adventurers had searched for their lair to end the Blood Screamers' marauding.