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

[sathan]

( between her heels and a dress she is certainly not comfortably dressed for a sand crossing, and looking at her you'd think it'd only make her more irritable. luckily, it's the magic that's helping to keep the sand from her shoes -- it's the little things )

Should I start with Hell or one of the other planes of existence?

[rehandle]

Hell? [ That's at least a familiar name, if not one he was expecting to hear. ] As in, fire and brimstone? Or just a place that really sucks?

[sathan]

There is more than just fire and brimstone but that is the general perception.

( she also doesn't sound like someone who's had a terrible time with hell )

Not, I assume, what you were expecting?

[rehandle]

Not high on my list, no. But since we're already on a roll with the unexpected...

[ Given how his life's been going lately, bumping into a denizen of one of the big Hs seems right about on cue. He gives a smirk, a little quirk of a brow - sure, why not this too? ]

I assume that means you're familiar with an Earth?

[sathan]

Earth, Heaven, if that was next on your list.

( not that she's personally familiar with heaven but she does know of it. wouldn't it be incredible if only one of the h's existed in some universe )

You seem to know something of crossing realms yourself.

[rehandle]

Mm. It's kind of my thing. [ Blasé, maybe, but he does spend an inordinate amount of his time crossing realms for a mortal from Earth. ] Dr. Stephen Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts. Pleased to meet you.

[sathan]

( she might not actually be rolling her eyes but internally she is.

okay, she's looking a little judgemental at it's kind of my thing )

Lilith. ( pause, briefly ) A Master of the Mystic Arts? Wizard or warlock?

[rehandle]

[ Judgement he's used to, and if it bothers him it doesn't show. ]

We tend to go for sorcerer. [ Of course they do. ] Hell is home?

[sathan]

I go between Hell and Earth.

( though for the past year she's been more on earth than in hell. but details, she's had many more years than that and is looking forward to returning to hell )

But yes, it is.

[rehandle]

And— not to demonize, [ the sudden glint in his eye says he knows he's made a joke and he's proud of it, but he has the decency not to let it linger, ] should I be concerned?

[ There's levity in his expression: he comes in peace, and in jest. ]

[sathan]

( a pointed smile, very funny sir. then her expression relaxes, almost innocent )

If you were responsible for this... crossing. Otherwise no, there are other problems to solve.

( like finding what brought her here, getting back to hell. kicking lucifer's ass )

[rehandle]

Right.

[ She and him both. It's not not every day he gets swept off to one alternate world or another, but it's usually not completely outside of his own control when he does. ]

It would be nice to bypass the whole 'march across another world in pursuit of return to our own' rigmarole.

[sathan]

You're not suggesting... taking this place?

( surely not. but also surely so? that would cut across the whole idea, though there'd likely be a way to get around this world without having to travel it )

If you're so experienced in travelling worlds how would you do it differently?

[rehandle]

[ Taking it? Stephen's expression pinches a little, bemused. ]

I don't know yet. Not like that.

[ Before he can garner himself too much more of the wrong kind of reputation, he should probably clarify how little his usual experience actually qualifies him to resolve their current issue. ]

My escape plan of late is rescue by plucky teen.

[sathan]

( she is not unfamiliar with the plucky teen rescue part, though her future holds much more of that )

Then your true expertise is in a different area of magic?

[rehandle]

Yes and no. If this were another dimension within in my own universe it wouldn't be so much of a problem.

[ Though the query begs the question. ]

And your expertise?

[sathan]

I've studied and practised many forms of magic. Many... areas.

( there are aspects of magic that lilith knows nothing about, things lost or things she's never had a reason to work on. but she'd also argue that there are few of her world that would know more )

Perhaps we might find an answer together?

[rehandle]

[ Lilith, woman of Hell, practitioner of many form and areas. A quirk at the corner of his mouth. He's had worse allies. ]

We can certainly try.

[sathan]

Though certainly not without knowing more. I've seen those less patient recklessly jump into the unknown. I have no intention of joining their fates.

( she was a survivor above all else and prided herself on a smart, good plan )

A task for each of us, perhaps?

[rehandle]

Divide and conquer. I can work with that.

[ Playfully lackadaisical, but it is the soundest approach. Two heads are better than one, and the more ground covered in individual research the better. ]

Do you have a proposal for where you'd like to start?

[sathan]

Knowing what power the people here might hold.

( did they also possess magic or was it a powered item that had fuelled their world-hopping? )

I've seen mortals do unexpected things but this would be new.

[rehandle]

[ A nod. That's as good a place as any. And, working with that as a foundation... ]

You look out and I'll look in. Map any limits imposed on my own abilities, ask around for anyone who's run into similar dampening of their usual skillsets. See what the patterns say.

[sathan]

You're considering not solely sorcerors?

( it made sense and it's what it sounded like. which reminds her: )

Was your plucky teen a sorceror?

[rehandle]

No. My plucky teen was not.

[ So yes, he's looking further afield. ]

Nor are we all sorcerers who were brought here. It seems short-sighted not to look beyond that.

[sathan]

How far does your knowledge stretch outside of sorcery?

( though she still hadn't yet pinned down his magical knowledge )