Misty Palm Springs

Roughly two long days traveling south of the Dom of Raone stands a veritable oasis in the middle of the otherwise featureless grassy plains. Surrounding the town center is smooth wall with watchtowers at regular intervals. Just outside the wall, the ground dips down in a dry moat, then raises to a hill again all around the walled area. A second wall can be seen further away from the road, curving with the raised hill and dry moat.  An open gate faces south east (towards the Road) without any visible doors, instead a another wall welcomes visitors with large painted scenes of the spring water that feeds the oasis within the walls. (The second wall covers a much larger area of land and protects its farms and farmers from raids. Another entrance into the city is beyond that wall for locals to use.)   Seeing the open gate from the distance is different from walking through it. The watchtowers are impressively tall after the flat nothing, and an arched bridge connects the two walls, allowing the soldiers guarding the walls to continue their patrols.  The curved walls direct the flow of traffic down a long and wide hallway, providing shade and more painted scenes on the walls. After a short distance, small openings provide access to some shops and windows to trade currency, find information concerning which part of the town you'd like to visit, and finally at the end, an administrative window that all must get approval to enter the town.  Here, all wishing entrance must join a que. There is a que for residents, another for regular visitors (merchants and traders), and another for new visitors and tourists.   To the left and right of the registration building are closed gates with soldiers standing guard. There is also a wide door on the left wall, also guarded, which is for people with carts, wagons, and mounts.    Once visitors receive their Oasis Tokens and have exchanged their currency for the local "beads and flakes" currency, they can wander through most of the town or be guided directly to the place they plan on staying. Wealthier visitors are usually guided from the gates to the Inn or Spa they will be staying at, and their mounts are tended to for them during their stay in the city.    The city itself is crowded and disorienting if you can't navigate well. The streets are narrow and no mounts or wagons are allowed inside the town proper. Buildings are often stacked on top of each other and the streets do not follow straight lines for long.  To a visitor's eye, the entire town seems to be a giant marketplace. Even areas that seem to be mostly residents have shop on the ground floor more often than not, and the town doesn't seem to ever be quiet. Even when the sun goes down, more people are out and about. Certain markets are also open at night.   Somewhere in the maze of the city is the spring from which provides the fresh water source for the entire city.  Once you stumble upon it, the city seems to open wide into a large plaza that didn't seem possible in the crowded streets.  Tall buildings surround the small lake with cloths of various colors stretched over the plaza, the plaza speaks of comfort, rest, and rejuvenation. Even the people walking by seem to walk slower and enjoy the serenity before moving on about their errands and shopping.    Other than the Spring, Misty Palm Springs offers unique street food, a wide variety of spices, cloths, dyes, glass products and other goods from both the Flatlands to the south, Draskon Kingdom from around the Mounds (or Black Hills), and Raone to the north. Aside from trade goods, the wealthier visitors tend to frequent the spas in elegant relaxation.