The Lair of Glass

The Lair of Glass is a small landmark not far to the east of Damascus. It consists of sandy terrain with a small sandstone cave in the middle of effectively nowhere. What marks this out is that obsidian glass is common here. About 200 yards in the entrance is a smallish cave with a well. Obsidian is everywhere here and makes up the walls & the well itself.

Purpose / Function

The lair is used as a hermitage for a single Muslim Imam hermit at any one time. They come & swap round every few months  with no set length of time. Each will pray and keep the lair clean while there. The Imam hermit will contemplate the Hadaths & the nature of the Koran while dealing with the strange figures that move & writhe in the polished obsidian of the lair. They tempt and curse and call out falsehoods trying to break the hermit's contemplation.
Yet for all this, the hermit will try to keep his wits and focus, like the first unnamed Imam to come here. A story was that a powerful Djinn tried to enter the world from deep in the well, in the shape of a blue wormlike creature demanding sacrifice from travellers, and others who chanced upon it. Each hermit will carry out exorcisms on the well to prevent the Djinn from returning.

History

From what the Islamic mosques can tell in Damascus, the Lair was built over the site of a meteor crash centuries ago. Something happened where water was discovered welling up from below and someone built a well over it along with stabling the cave. Exactly who was anybody's guess. Strange things happened, but it took a local Imam to preform an exorcism to stop an evil from coming out of the well. It seemed to trap the souls of evil people in the obsidian reflecting the darkness of their souls back onto those who wander in. The remains of these are meant to be down in the well, there still and unable to be reclaimed decades if not centuries later.
Since that time, the lair has been maintained by hermits who try to prevent the Djinn from returning, and corrupting the area since. Many pious Muslims come to pray outside and keep it clear along with preventing lesser souls from trying to enter. The fact that no-one has died in the lair for some time it seems to have worked.

"Been there once, and couldn't get in. There were pious locals around it, preventing me getting water. From what they said  was better off not going in. Had to move on."
Kulug Jocki in personal notes.

Type

Lair