Deep in the swirling sands of Menechtarun lies a fabled oasis where blood flows instead of water. Legends claim the ziggurat nearby is where the deity Ouralon first appeared to selected giants and taught them the secrets of magic. The titans reveled in their newfound power, creating a paradise in honor of their draconic patrons. Here, living marble statues frolicked among crystal pools whose magic waters promised life everlasting. Vast orchards of date trees sprouted from the sand, their fruit granting joyous visions.
When the giants perverted their powers with unspeakable blood rites, this paradise fell. The majestic marble statues wept crimson tears, and the once-clear pools clouded with dark red blood. The ziggurat still stands, a sand-scoured testament to the onetime bond shared by giant and dragon, but the horrid power of blood that now taints its altar draws dark denizens and evil spirits like moths to a flame.
Approach
The oasis is ringed in miles of swirling red sand, and by night the piteous moans of undead echo throughout. Wind-borne wraiths prowl the air, while zombie purple worms lurk underfoot. Undead sand giants (MM3 58)—some vampires, some mummified, others cursed to exist as devourers—rise from the dunes to prey on travelers. The constant sandstorm raging here confuses even skilled rangers and druids. A DC 50 Survival check is necessary to reach the oasis. Alternatively, if a creature cuts itself deeply enough to leave a thick trail of blood over the course of a day’s travel (losing at least 50% of it hit points), it can follow this trail directly to the oasis after the next sunrise.
A crimson moon holds court over red stars in the night sky above the oasis. Orchards of malformed date trees surround a towering ziggurat of alabaster. The pristine white structure of stone would be beautiful in any other milieu, but it seems an obscenity set against this gruesome landscape.
Features
No sandstorm intrudes upon this unhallowed site; the winds are always calm. Light from the sun, moon, or any other source is always tainted with a red cast, and illumination does not allow creatures to distinguish color. Living creatures bleed from the ears, nose, eyes, and gums while they linger at the oasis. This deals 2 points of Constitution damage every hour (which does not heal naturally until they leave), and imposes a –2 penalty on all ranged attack rolls and Spot checks. Any wound received in the oasis bleeds for 1 hit point per round until a successful DC 25 Heal check is made or curative magic is employed. The blood wept by the statues, flowing from the pool, and dripping from the trees stains anything or anyone it touches, and it doesn’t wash off until the object or person is 100 miles away from the oasis.
Keyed Locations
The following features correspond to numbered areas on the map.
- Heart Trees: These veined trees weep rivulets of fresh blood from their trunks. Within a hollow in each is the beating heart of a drow slave horribly sacrificed by the giants of old. Eating a heart confers a heal effect as the spell and grants a permanent +2 bonus to Constitution (once only per creature, no matter how many hearts it eats), but forevermore the eater dreams of being sacrificed on the altar of blood (page 143). Every night it must succeed on a DC 20 Will save or awaken fatigued the next morning. (The bonus to Constitution doesn’t stop the Constitution damage from bleeding while at the Oasis.)
- Pool of Eyes: This pool once flowed with crystal waters whose restorative powers were unmatched. Now it is thick with congealed blood, and eyeballs float on its surface. The eyes follow anyone who nears the pool, and the thoughts of any creature within 50 feet are projected as if by an amulet of thought projection. In addition, any creature that comes within 10 feet must succeed on a DC 25 Will save or be compelled to tear out its own eyes and hurl them into the gory pool.
- Grotesque Statuary: Living marble statues in the shape of giants, elves, and dragons languish here, weeping crimson tears and engaging in ghastly selfmutilation. The statues break off their own limbs and deface themselves, then mortar broken pieces back into place using a sticky mixture of blood, pulped entrails, and sand. The result is something out of a sculptor’s twisted nightmare, with blood and bits of tissue oozing out between dozens of cracks along the statues’ forms. Anyone who enters the statuary is targeted with a flesh to stone effect (Fortitude DC 20, CL 20th). The living marble statues smash anyone turned to stone into shards, then grind the victims’ dust into their own marble “skin” or use it for mortar when repairing themselves. The statues fight if attacked and are identical to stone golems in every respect.
- Orchard of Eulogy: The bittersweet dates growing here once granted eaters visions of the future. Now any creature that tastes them sees visions of its own death. The next time the eater saves against a death effect, it must roll twice and take the lower result. In addition, an affected creature cannot make a stabilization check the next time it is reduced to fewer than 0 hp. The dates are sought after by assassins and by evil creatures that enjoy feeding them to their enemies.
- Underblood Tunnels: These expansive tunnels beneath the marble pool hold many secrets of the giants, including caches of powerful magic weapons hidden from the Eyes of Chronepsis. Rumor has it that a ruby the size of a giant’s fist, containing a soulbound titan named Draxveros the Wyrm-Cleaver, is located within.
- Giants’ Vengeance: This large submerged chamber contains an enormous statue in honor of a primeval deity of giantkin, Rom-Praxis, whose worship was long ago forbidden by the dragons. The eyes of this hidden shrine contain the giants’ greatest achievement. At the height of their power, the titans of old sacrificed thousands of slaves and wrought two Orbs of Dragonkind (one red, one gold). They hid these mighty artifacts in the blood of the shrine where they secretly honored their forbidden god and masked them with potent magic, intending to one day usurp the dragons and claim power over Eberron. The dragons descended upon the giant empire so quickly that the titans were unable to retrieve these treasures and put them to use. The artifacts wait now, submerged in blood, for anyone foolish enough to seize them. If the dragons were to learn of the Orbs, they would stop at nothing to destroy them and anyone who knew of their existence.
- White Ziggurat: The alabaster ziggurat standing sentinel over the oasis is rumored to be the spot where Ouralon once opened the titans’ eyes to arcane magic. Later, beset by the legions of Dal Quor, the giants perverted this site with detestable rituals of blood magic, shaking the continent with power no creature was ever meant to wield. Drunk on this newfound might, and outraged at the rebellion of their elf slaves, the giants spilled an ocean of blood in preparation for another dark rite of cataclysm. The dragons averted this ceremony, but the pollution of these abhorrent rites left its stain on the oasis for all time. At the top of the ziggurat stands the altar of blood, a powerful magical location whose gift and curse are equally potent.