The gith stood poised to execute Bartras when Zahraan seized Karnos and Shank, then surged forward with preternatural speed, landing them amidst the throng of warriors. Chaos erupted as a defiler gith conjured a stinking cloud at the chamber's entrance, sealing them off from the rest. Undeterred, Karnos unleashed a psionic blast that sent eight gith crumpling to the ground. In retaliation, another defiler hurled three scorching rays at him, but he shifted into an insubstantial form, evading the searing magic.

Shank roared into a frenzied rage, charging toward Bartras. A spear pierced his side, but he pressed on, activating his fury of the arena. In a brutal display, he cut down a gith before setting his sights on the chieftain seated upon his throne—one mighty swing and the leader lay slain. Drunk on victory, Shank attempted to rally the remaining gith under his command, but they would not yield.

Freed from his bonds, Bartras seized the very scimitar meant for his execution and immediately struck at a gith. Meanwhile, Fazanna streaked through the stinking cloud with unnatural speed, entering the chamber. With a flick of her wrist, she conjured a fireball, reducing seven gith to charred remains before weaving into the fray with her bladesong. Shiv burst through the noxious haze, his maul sending two gith crashing to the stone. Safi followed close behind, morphing into a hulking giant hatori—Athas’s monstrous sand alligator. The battlefield turned against the gith, and as their numbers dwindled, many abandoned the fight and fled.

Shank, however, was not done. He struck at a defiler gith, only to be met with a withering blast of defiling energy. Snarling through the pain, he retaliated, cleaving the defiler in half with his great axe before turning his wrath on another, cutting him down in a single, devastating blow. With unstoppable momentum, he finished yet another gith near Bartras. But the rescued warrior had no intention of retreating—he pursued a fleeing gith, much to Shank’s frustration.

Safi, still in his reptilian form, clamped his massive jaws around a gith, crushing him instantly, though his sweeping tail missed another. Fazanna struck down a gith with green flame blade, then turned, swiftly dispatching another before plunging her shortsword into a third. Zahraan moved with deadly precision, landing two unarmed strikes against a foe. Anvar stepped forward, dropping a gith with a single crushing punch. Shiv, relentless, sidestepped into the melee and crushed another enemy before standing beside Bartras, his maul felling yet another gith.

Karnos raised a hand and fired three energy rays at a retreating gith, one striking true. Another warrior lunged at Zahraan, but he effortlessly deflected the attack with practiced martial skill. Anvar’s fist found another target, sending a gith sprawling. Fazanna cast a firebolt, incinerating a fleeing gith before whirling around and skewering another with her shortsword. Safi, returning to his true form, strode after a retreating enemy and struck him down with a toll the dead spell.

The chamber fell silent, void of any living gith. Then, a distant sound cut through the hush—the rhythmic knocking of mallets against timber, followed by a deep, ominous rumbling. The tunnels were collapsing. Without hesitation, Karnos tapped into his psionic power, invoking his nomadic wanderer ability. In the blink of an eye, he whisked them all from the crumbling depths, emerging safely into the open air above.

For days, the party had traveled under Selanu’s expert guidance, the ranger skillfully navigating the perils of the desert. Thanks to her, they had escaped with only minor injuries, both to themselves and their weary mounts. Yet despite the relative ease of the journey, the relentless sun and the constant rocking of their kanks left their bodies aching, exhaustion settling deep in their bones.

As dawn painted the sky in hues of fire, Selanu promised that their ordeal was nearly over—by sunset, they would reach Bitter Well.

That evening, as the sun dipped toward the horizon, they caught their first glimpse of their destination. In the distance, the great wall of silt loomed, an immense, shifting plateau rising hundreds of feet into the air, an eerie sentinel marking the edge of the Dusty Ocean. Below its swirling haze, a cluster of stone huts crouched in a semicircle, barely visible through the silt-storm. Caravans dotted the settlement, and even from afar, the faint strains of voices and music drifted toward them.

With Bitter Well in sight, Selanu reined in her mount and turned to bid them farewell. "Take care in your quest," she urged, her gaze sweeping over them all. Even the Urikites received her well-wishes before she spurred her kank around and rode back into the vast wilderness, vanishing into the sands as swiftly as she had come.

The group barely had a moment to take in the settlement below before a bone-chilling cry split the air. The sound, raw and exultant, sent a shiver down their spines. Whirling, they scrambled to the crest of a dune and beheld a sight of horror—

Charging across the sands, four beasthead giants thundered toward them, their massive forms silhouetted against the dying light. Their grotesque faces twisted in glee as they roared, swinging cruel, jagged blades above their heads. The giants were not merely attacking—

They were reveling in the slaughter to come.