Within The Maw therein lies a very unusual pool tucked into a narrow chasm where columnar basalt meets jungle. Upon first glance, this place looks like a normal lake with clear blue water over its shallow bed. However, waiting moments, one will observe bubbles, sometimes huge in size, oozing up out of the bottom of the 'pool' and breaking the surface to create a rainbow sheen that refracts sunlight in a colorful yet oily display. Once the bubble has dispersed, the water calms, and the pool looks natural again.
However, this is no ordinary pool. It is a tar pit that has captured rainwater and jungle runoff to collect above its surface and mask its true identity from those who are not observant or wary. If the water was all removed, the tar would be black as night and equally as deadly.
Animals who come to its edge to drink often get trapped in its unstable and highly quickmud-like nature. The more these unsuspecting animals struggle the more they sink deeper, being eventually pulled under and drowned in the pools seemingly limitless depth.
This collection of water covered tar, more like a small lake, has been bubbling up bitumen since the beginning of Falyndar and well after the Valterrian. The ancient city of Pavena discovered and made great use of this tar pit by mixing its bitumen content with aggregate particles to create asphalt concrete.
Roads were paved through the jungle, some of which can still be found today in remnant lengths, most having been reclaimed by the jungle. The pre-Valterrian peoples built their city of its never ending deep pool contents. They used the tar from the pit for bituminous waterproofing, including coating pier pilings and roofing metals and for sealing flat roofs.
Today, the Founders have rediscovered the pit and have made good use of it for piling waterproofing. They also use it to make material flammable such as creating torches with its bitumen. Tar pits throughout Mizahar are not unknown. There are several in Kalea, Cyphrus, and Eyktol.
