sand in your eyes

[groundrules]

And onwards, through the cursed desert. The mini-journey Arc covers 6-21 January and doubles as a test drive meme. Participants do not need an invite to apply this round. Have fun!

SAND IN YOUR EYES

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TEST DRIVE TOURISTS | ONE SAND WASHES THE OTHER
A HOUSE UNITED WILL SAND | SOILMATES | A PYRAMID SCHEME

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A SANDING OVATION

Sand in your eyes, down your throat, stifling. You wake half-buried in high dunes, crawling towards helping hands. Thirst vanquishes you.

You are quickly offered a translation and communication pendant and introduced to the leader of the caravan that saved you — good Mazyar, who thanks the stars for your most incredible luck to be rescued by his generous and humble self. For he is not a man for idle praise, but he has sold salt to salt makers, he was courted by seven of the five great trade guilds and brought peace to the Stairs of Sighs…

Mazyar reveals you are in Akhuras, where undead lieges seek to weaponise you in their war for dominion. Mazyar’s good but less successful friend, the elusive Merchant ferries otherworlders east, where ancient beacons can transport them home.

Retire for now and regain your strength. Come morning, further otherworlders will arrive from Serthica — and your journey may begin.

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ONE SAND WASHES THE OTHER

The veteran party reunites with newcomers in the desert, and with the merchant Mazyar — who once guided them through the Stairs of Sighs. His caravan is protected by the Scavengers —deathly a tribe of hardened desert raiders. They bring water flasks, supplies, cooling suits and tents to share. Their snail-like carriage mounts can transport the weak.

You are bound for the seized citadel of Alem, swarmed on each side by undead battalions. To access it, you must obtain one of the enormous sand worms that trawl the deserts, which can be deployed to create underground passageways.

The Scavengers will lead the caravan through haunted dunes, the worms’ traditional hunting grounds and temple-fortress Uruksithar.

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A HOUSE UNITED WILL SAND

The group first reaches the Valley of Unchaining, bordered by high cliffs and fang-like stones. Here and there, discover bloodied footprints, half-buried shackles and red chains. You might even stumble upon an eroded tombstone inscribed, H R SL EP THE UNCH IN D. At its feet are dulled dagger blades and rough calcar stone.

COULD DIE FROM LAUGHTER

You fool, never eat alone. Happen by the camp’s outskirts with your dinner, and you might glimpse the silhouettes of starved desert hyenas, their eyes glistening green. They will come close if you bear raw meat or bleeding wounds.

■ Scavengers say, if you see the hyenas, throw them food or a cloth drenched in fresh blood, then run without looking back until you no longer hear their cruel cries.

■ Some hyenas mimic rasped human voices, begging help or calling your name. One feeble hyena wears a chain of red shackles around its neck.

■ If you look back while chased, you find the green stare of the hyenas fixed upon you. You are gradually overcome by starvation, violence and the urge to dismember prey and feast on raw flesh. Player’s choice on whether characters can resist this compulsion, which disappears at dawns, or if they taste blood.

■ Scavengers will deny you entrance into the camp if you appear possessed in this way.

SANDIMENTAL VALUE

You walk the Valley, Scavengers say, and Mother Death walks with you. A once handsome crone might appear beside you, bare-footed and dressed in clean linens. She remains silent unless spoken to and flinches if you move suddenly, as if she fears being struck.

■ Treat the Crone kindly, and she entrusts you with a small pouch holding a fraction of her ashes, which she wants scattered from the hills.

■ Use rope and climbing hooks and take cover behind stone formations. Beware the violent sand whirlwinds that batter the cliffs, threatening to plunge you down or choke you with sand.

■ If you succeed, the Crone appears to watch her scattering ashes and bless you with good luck for the rest of your journey. Your kindness, she says, reminds her of her daughter.

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SOILMATES

The three-day walk to Uruksithar traverses the sand worms’ hunting grounds, where dunes shift periodically in sharp, tectonic waves. Watch your step and don’t be surprised if your tent sinks at night.

■ The Scavengers organise daily reconnaissance parties in the desert hills. Stay with them to unbury dune treasures.

■ The brave & brazen can try to catch sand worms. The massive creatures erupt overground periodically, catching prey in their large mouths, or crushing it beneath their heft as they plunge in the depths — creating large sinkholes in the process.

■ On its back, each sand worm has a few darker scales that draw the shape of a rune. To tame a sand worm, you must find its rune, then write the symbol on the worm’s back using blood from your hands. Report your catch by 23:59 on 17 January!

■ The sand worm bonds with you for three weeks until the next full moonrise, or until you draw the same rune on your cut hand.

■ Those who secure a sand worm find it grudgingly follows them underground for the rest of the journey. The creature can only be steered or ridden.

■ Some sand worms are vicious, old and sufficiently magical to retaliate by taking the link over and forcing their bonded humans to experience their lives — briefly sensitive to light and strong sounds, or unable to speak. Some might experience mild fevers. All symptoms disappear when the bond breaks.

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A PYRAMID SCHEME

At last, welcome to Uruksithar, former jewel of the desert — now reduced to rusted gates and tattered walls of wind-lashed stone.

The abandoned palace-fortress features a row of minor temples and barren gardens that surround a great, ruinous pit. The state of residential furnishings suggests the grounds were lived mere years prior. Walk north to find a a large pool of thickened black water that exudes a cold, unsettling presence. Veteran party members know what to expect.

Nail scratches on some temple walls read, we, who did not sleep or i ask the wind to grieve our chains. By the pit, a stone plate helpfully says, drop by drop, even base water turns to poison.

The Scavengers disperse to raid the temples, advising you to carry water everywhere. One raider mentions that the local Temple of Ra’esh stores silver waters that can woo sand worms.

OCTOPUS PRIME

Uruksithar’s great gong strikes every two hours, to groans and shudders from the abyssal pit. Scavengers immediately take cover behind walls, bind themselves to columns or rush into crumbling residences.

■ For five minutes, as the gong sounds a pathetic dirge, a bouquet of tentacles erupts from the pit, sweeping nearby streets to capture living things.

■ Throwing water on the tentacles forces them to retreat, while black liquid from the northern pool burns them down. Further tendrils emerge until the gong quiets.

■ Should you fall into the pit, use your climbing hooks to latch onto the walls and don’t look down. A grotesque, sharp-toothed mouth awaits below to devour you, amid the squelching sounds of the tissue and material it has been masticating for decades. It won’t give up its lunch easily.

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TOMB AND GLOOM

Ra’esh the Bright-maker, he who saw but peace beneath the skies. His humble temple is anonymous among numerous worship grounds. Scavengers say, four years ago, a wanderer sculpted an eye with a sun for a pupil on the entrance door. Take a torch and head in.

■ Long-stripped of its glory, the maze-like Temple of Ra’esh is now cold stone, stale window-less corridors and heavy doors that snap down from the ceiling.

■ Distant susurrations of water point you towards your destination.

■ As you walk in, pay attention to the engravings near the entryway of each temple room. Some depict arrows, forecasting spikes will burst up from floors tiles. Sculpted drops hint pouring water in this spot will open a door. Open a door with an engraving of large serpents, and… well. The engravings can help characters navigate the maze and completely avoid its traps. Feel free to make up your own engravings & traps, if you want!

■ The altar room contains a pool with pearlescent waters that surround a woman fully bandaged in gauze, her sight obscured. She is bound to a column with chains and shackles akin to those found in the desert. Rare peeks of her skin show it rotting or sickly pale.

■ She asks either if you are her mother, come for her at last. Do you engage?

■ Take water from the pool, and you can lure a sand worm to you once you have exited Uruksithar. Hazed, but sweet-tempered, it will follow you underground and allow you to ride it for the three weeks until the next full moonrise. These sand worms won’t give you a hard time during the bond period. Report your worm too by 23:59 on 17 January!

NOTES

■ Test driving & in-game characters can top level logs here — test driving characters can also put up network posts in this space c:

■ Feel free to investigate the mystery of the chains and shackles, but no pressure — it’s not critical to Arc V.

■ Hit up NPCs!

■ Navigation top.

QUESTIONS

Comments

[reparo]

Hermione would be absolutely appalled that someone is chained to the rocks and trapped there, and she would forget all about the water fetching mission to respond something in the lines of: Who traps you here?

[groundrules]

The — alas, truly distressed! — woman will sob, somewhere between despair and gratitude, murmuring words Hermione might struggle to first hear. She seems unable to speak cohesively at first, but is drawing her strength, to finally say that her people abandoned her when they fled Uruksithar, because she would not fall in line with their suicidal fantasies. Her very mother watched on as she was chained, but the woman has hoped and hoped that she would return to free her. Will Hermione?

The key to her magically enforced chains is close by, the woman has heard it dropping. Perhaps in the waters, or in the dusted floors of the adjacent rooms (where, curiously, the entryway indications point to... spikes on some of the floor tiles.)

What does Hermione do?

[reparo]

She's going to do it. She's going to try to free the woman. Can accio key work in this circumstance or will like a million old keys fling at her? Both options good btw.

eta: I found a co-conspirator to bust this beauty out, or die trying.

[groundrules]

No to Accio — please pick an option, since it makes a difference!

[reparo]

Apologies - the water will be searched first.

[groundrules]

Nothing to apologise for! Things to notice:

— the second you enter the waters, any skin that touches them starts to itch and burn, as if a severe rash is spreading (this is a contact allergy reaction and disappears after you're out). Skin that's protected by tight clothes is fine!

— the waters strangely resemble in both colour and thickness the saliva/slobber of transiting sand worms

— the key (rusted, but serviceable) can be found after some digging in the pool. It works on the chains, though both her legs and arms each have their own hole to unlock.

— which of her limbs is first unlocked, and who is unlocking, Hermione or Vi? (you can come back to me on this later, if you want to thread out to that point!)

[faceblocker]

will let Cella answer about the shackles because Hermione's got the key, but Vi will ask the woman her name and try to pull the bandages from her eyes so she can see. Undead eyes? No eyes? Haunted eldritch eyes?

[groundrules]

So, we can't have multiple reactions at the same time — happy for you guys to take turns with actions, though?

[reparo]

here it is - left leg shackle gets unlocked first, by Hermione, while Vi is trying to befriend whatever god of the undead we're releasing

[groundrules]

Okay — so you want a reaction to the leg, orrrrr? Just want to make sure, since I've had two requests now, and I don't want to get it wrong. I can only do one at a time, so you guys can pick which.

[reparo]

Leggy first - we've flipped for it.

[groundrules]

Awesome —

The woman will try to twitch and jolt her leg into movement, but will struggle to achieve that and complain that she cannot. Theorising it must be stiff because of the time spent shackled, she will wait obediently to see if she has better luck moving her second leg, if that is released.

If Vi or Hermione do so, the woman will fall down, seemingly unable to coordinate her legs. She is able to give them a few shakes, but not to stand, and Hermione/Vi will be able to overhear her mutter reassurances to herself that it's fine, it was like this the first time around too, it'll all be fine.

[faceblocker]

That seems fine everything's fine.

Vi will ask her name and what she means the 'first time around'.

[groundrules]

She is unfortunately too distressed by the trouble with her legs to answer and keeps speaking to herself, trying to make her legs work and gently, gently prevailing to come up — no better than a baby deer. She rattles the chains bound to her arms, trying desperately to remove them and help her legs again.

[reparo]

Cool. What they do next is

- Vi asks her what her name is (would like to resolve this first)
- Hermione will unshackle her right arm

[groundrules]

Heya! The name issue has been answered (or non-answered, haha)

[reparo]

I saw belatedly - I didn't parent up. Does anything happen when her right arm is unshackled?

[groundrules]

No problem at all!

She reaches to the best of her ability to move her legs mechanically - to fold them in and out, as if trying to get the blood in them moving. Inevitably, there are restrictions because of her hand that remains bound, and she cannot fully reach. She seems to be almost able to walk again, taking a few steps around the pole, though she is slow, lethargic, clumsy. Her spine is poorly angled, curling into itself. She asks to be released completely, and if there is any water the two may spare.

They can observe, as she moves, that there is wetness spilling from her gauzes, more of the silvered 'water' that gathers in the pool. (Gross.)

[faceblocker]

Vi swoops in with her water brought from camp! She'll hold it for her, and she's ready to catch her if she falls again.

[groundrules]

The woman drinks and drinks and drinks, seeming to replenish as she does so, the slivers of her skin that can be seen becoming fuller, pinker, fresher. She convalesces before their eyes, and though her gauze hides away the better part of her features, early indications suggest she might be a beauty, of a kind.

Her wits seem to recover partly as her thirst lessens, throwing an arm over Vi's shoulder to hold herself up. She can hold herself a little better now, but still struggles to walk comfortably.

She is Marath and asks to be released and to leave this wretched place, wondering if her people have finally come to their senses and sent these two girls to retrieve her. Will they all go together in pilgrimage, then? As she chatters, she waits to be released completely.


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To make things simpler, you can ask two-three questions (combined) you can ask before she is released. Drop a line if she isn't!

[reparo]

I'm happy to write it out in the tag, but Hermione would ask: who are your people, Marath? How long have you been here?

Depending on her answer they might inform her that they're not her people but Good Girls Who Do Not Deserve To Be Eaten Ma'am

[groundrules]

Okedoke —

Her people are the residents of Uruksithar, and she has no real idea how long she has been chained up. She can see the light spill and dim between some cracks in the walls, but her thirst has been consuming her. After a point in her suffering, days began to bleed into each other.

[reparo]

Could they also get the answer of what her people thought leaving her tied up there would accomplish in exchange for more water?

[groundrules]

It was a punishment for her trying to discourage them from going into the desert in droves!

[reparo]

Sounds not at all suspicious and absolutely horrible and I'm sure they'll get to learn more about it but first - they're going to unlock the last shackle and free the lady.