I never should have complained about the Hinterlands. Sure, it was really big and had a myriad of menial tasks for me to accomplish, but it was also consistently sunny with a mild temperature. No rain, no thunderstorms, and definitely no unbearable sun beating down constantly. If the name of the next destination in need of an inquisiting doesn’t tip you off, the Forbidden Oasis is a fertile spot in the middle of a vast desert. So, the second part of the name isn’t misleading, but the first part is a bit, because someone had set up a mining operation there. That and the fact that I wandered around with no problem seem to put a dent in the oasis’ foreboding adjective. That no one was working the mine while I was there probably has more to do with the demons running around than any inherent forbiddenness of the place. Come to think of it, there wasn’t anybody there at all. Just some demons, hyenas and spiders for us to fight off. It was kind of refreshing, actually, not having a group of sword and sorcery wielding maniacs constantly trying to kill us. Another plus, the RaMOs returned. In fact, the RaMOs were the reason we trekked across the scorching sands in the first place. We were there to locate a… thing. A tomb? Temple? I don’t know, something with a “T.” Whatever it was, the T apparently had a connection to the glowing shard RaMOs that I’d been picking up with the help of the sinister magic skulls. You know, sometimes, even I’m confused by the things I have to write, but they are what they are. When I found the T, it somehow knew how many of the things I’d collected, despite the fact that they were sitting back at Haven, and allowed me through the front door. Inside, there were corpses to kill and boosts to my magical resistance to be had. The only downside to the whole thing was that I only had enough shards to get into the place and open three doors. Out of ten. Meaning I’d have to leave, collect more shards, and come back. Across that damn desert. Again. At least the place itself is pretty, so seeing it again was something to look forward to.
A diamond in the hot, sandy, windy rough.
The most notable negative about the oasis was how it was set up. It was basically in a hole in the desert, so you had to work your way down to it through some narrow canyons and caves. This also meant that, thanks to the way rock works, there were lots of high places sticking up out of the hole, with their own paths to and from. Still with me? Good. The problem arises when you try to use a flat map to find things in such a place. You’ll be at the right spot on the map, but whatever you’re looking for is actually on top of the cliff jutting out above you or in some cave below you. Now you have to figure out how to go around, or through, or whatever to get to a place you’re already at. It’s just tedious and makes everything take longer than it should.
I can’t even utilize one of my favorite low-effort combat tactics, the extremely technical manoeuvre of dropping things on whatever’s beneath me.
Well, no matter how I felt about the local topography, it was a far more pleasant experience than the last place I had inquisited. But, I was out of shards and tired of splashing about in the pool, so it was time to pack up and head for home.
