Lōtos Karstway Basin
The party navigated the steep incline down into the basin, footing helped by the deeply-rooted, tight-knit carpet of moss which covered over the soft earth and made it firm--even Dravec's weight didn't cause much of a shift in it. Where this carpet cleared it revealed smooth, grey-yellow stone carved dramatically by erosion.
Their path took them down 6 some-odd meters to a broad ledge, which again gave way to several more such steps, until they were at least 20 meters below the basin's lip. The temperature descended with them, never quite cold but certainly a 7°C cooler than the balmy 30°C at the top.
Though the ecology was dense with all manner of bromeliads and ferns, it was the massive-flowered trees which drew the eye. They formed a canopy of flower-fronds with broad, pink petals as firm as agave but velvety and covered in a thick, velvety membrane which scattered light off and through itself in such a way that it cast a soft, dreamy glow onto the forest floor below. This dreamlike quality was reinforced by a thin and constant mist emanating from the bottom of the flower-fronds. So far as Psovod could judge, despite the area being fairly arid this basin was a cloud forest and these trees were the keystone to the ecosystem.
"They look like lotus flowers," Rohssa said, holding out a hand to catch a trickle of water dripping from the frond of a tree. "Maybe that's why this area was marked as the Lōtos Karstway Basin. Lōtos probably means 'lotus', I'd bet."
Dravec sneezed and flicked his tail in irritation. Like the rest of them, his nose tickled at all the alien allergens. "/I'll scout./" he said, leaping the twelve feet up onto a ledge, then disappearing above the lowest layer of the canopy. Several birds that looked more like lizards screeched and flew off, adding to the din of creature sounds cluttering the forest.
It was immediately clear that this region had once known some sort of habitation. Old, stone rings and arches stood before them, encouraging them deeper into the twisting stone maze of the forest...
