Torstan,
Good idea on the drop shadow. I also fixed the Layer Mask that showed the Slate fill underneath the sand coloring.

Jfrazierjr,
The repeating pattern is a tile fill, so I suppose it is intentional. I'll try out the noise layer and see if it benefits.

The red color is story related and has to do with a magical curse. The light idea is cool though.

Thank you both for the input.