The Oasis

A wide turquoise pool ringed by palm trees in the western desert, with a scattering of canvas tents and the sounds of people talking, singing, and splashing in the water. Spotted from Grit's mountain perch and reached by Operation Oasis after the party defeated a dust elemental that had cloaked the true site behind a mirage.

The Dwellers: Roughly two dozen figures live around the pool in rough togas woven from natural fibers, barefoot and unbothered by armed strangers. None of them are entirely human — the hag Auntie Dirtha Bonebender has transformed each of them from animals (lizards, tortoises, birds), and they behave according to their original natures: basking, eating slowly, hopping. Most are content. A circle of warding magic at the pool's edge can begin to reverse the transformation for any who pass through it.

The Water: Kouzlo's ritual identification confirmed the water itself is simply water — but the entire area hums with magic, the pool serving as a conduit for power flowing somewhere deeper. The pool is no pool at all: it drops away into a vertical shaft beneath the desert, plunging into a vast underground cavern. The Sunken Pyramid lies at the bottom, with Dirtha's eels patrolling the descent.

Splashes seen at the oasis from far away are often Dirtha herself — she travels on the wind and in the water and may be present at any time.