Just at the edge of the Great Desert squats a strange city built around an oasis. The water is hardly more than a large mud puddle, and sandstorms turn the sunlight into an odd purplish glow upon the sickly clay dwellings. But desert dwellers flock there nonetheless, for there is black cacti growing all around the Whispering City. The visions gained from the powdered cacti's use are very popular among the empty headed as well as the greatest of magi. In fact, people have flocked to the site for centuries, a fact attested to by the layers of ruins upon which the city is built.
