let's set d o w n some (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
groundrules) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
westwhere2023-01-06 07:33 pm
groundrules) wrote in westwhere2023-01-06 07:33 pm
Entry tags:
- 2ha: chu wanning,
- arcane: jinx,
- arcane: vi,
- arcane: viktor,
- asoiaf: daenerys targaryen,
- better call saul: jimmy mcgill,
- better call saul: kim wexler,
- doctor who: clara oswald,
- doctor who: the doctor,
- final fantasy xiv: vrtra,
- game of thrones: jon snow,
- mcu: kamala khan,
- mcu: wanda maximoff,
- mcu: yelena,
- mo dao zu shi: xiao xingchen,
- oh! my emperor: beitang moran,
- original: licyn mansbane,
- owl house: eda clawthorne,
- penny dreadful: vanessa ives,
- star trek: leonard mccoy (aos),
- star wars: merrin,
- test drive,
- the gifted: marcos diaz,
- tian guan ci fu: xie lian,
- touken ranbu: kanesada,
- umbrella academy: allison,
- umbrella academy: five,
- warcraft: anduin wrynn,
- warcraft: wrathion,
- warframe: kahl 175,
- x-men: charles xavier,
- zettai karen children: kumoi yuuri
sand in your eyes
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!
A HOUSE UNITED WILL SAND | SOILMATES | A PYRAMID SCHEME
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
no subject
"I'll take your word for it." Exhaling, Clara thinks about the things she's seen, the planets she's been to where everything feels wrong. Even on her own, there are places where people are oppressed in the worst ways.
She's steady under his gaze, recognizing it for what it is. It sounds like trust is likely hard-won where here's from, so she doesn't mind. It gives her a chance to do so in return, but not really to figure out whether or not he's trustworthy. More like nice to look at.
"I don't know what that's like," she admits. "But I hope those places that aren't cruel have at least a little kindness."
no subject
“Like you said. We’re all in this together. So as long as we are, we can make sure this place is a little less cruel.”
no subject
How? No clue. But she searches for an excuse to be able to keep talking to him.
"Have you eaten? I was on my way to find something not finely dusted with sand."
no subject
He grins at the invitation.
“Could eat half a bantha,” he admitted happily. Really, he could have easily scrounged up something for himself, but why eat alone when you could keep such pretty company instead? “So, as long as you don’t mind me tagging along—“
no subject
"No clue what a bantha is, but I think I get the idea," she says with a laugh, turning to lead the way and waiting until they fall into step together to continue their conversation.
"The food isn't as good as it was where we last were, but it's not the worst I've ever had. Not on this planet, anyway."
no subject
"So how many places have you been on this planet?" he asks, tilting his head and allowing his curiosity to be a little more avert now that he thinks it might be welcome. "You said it was cold, before here. Just how far have you been travelling?"
no subject
"The cold weather and the inn where we stayed were a resting point. We'd been traveling for weeks before that, from a place called Serthica. I showed up on this planet around then, and everyone had already been there a while, I think. From the cold weather to the desert has been a few days." Clara looks at him somewhat apologetically. "There are people who've been here in total at least a year."
If he was thinking this detour is a short one, he could be mistaken. Better to have a head's up.
no subject
He halts in his tracks, falling behind her a couple of steps, before his brain and his body catch up.
“… that’s a long time to be somewhere you did not mean to go,” he replies after a moment.
“Even with freedom.”
no subject
"This isn't the first time I've wound up someplace I shouldn't've, but this is the longest I've ever gone without being able to leave if I wanted," she agrees.
"Which makes me wonder if this isn't all some giant prison. A whole...prison planet. Or something. There's tons of different theories floating around."
no subject
“I’ve been in prisons. If we’re cell mates, they aren’t working very hard to make this miserable.”
no subject
"Definitely not, I'd say. In fact, the opposite of miserable right now." She glances up at him, unable to keep from smiling. She's about to say something else when she feels the ground shudder beneath her feet. Used to things happening at the drop of a hat, she stops and puts a hand on his arm without thinking about it as she frowns.
"Did you feel that?"
no subject
He nodded.
“Felt like a huge vehicle moving, somewhere below. Like a drill, or—“
He was cut off when suddenly the earth shifted below them. The earth heaved, bending and bowing under the force, and he grabbed for Clara’s arm out of instinct. It was localized, that much was clear, he could see the way the sand curved sharply away from them and fell back in to the endless sea of dunes.
Which meant—
“Or something is hungry. Run!”
no subject
The ground is changing even as he tells her to run, and she doesn't hesitate - adventures with the Doctor have kept her from questioning before running. It almost looks like a cartoon, the way the ground is moving. From far away it might be fascinating to see but as it stands, she feels like the ground is literally sinking beneath her feet, each step not taking her far away enough from the danger.
Just behind her, something seems to push its way up, bucking the ground enough that it knocks Clara into Cassian and she shouts as she feels herself go down, scrambling in the sand to try and push herself up.
"Brasso!"
no subject
No one could ever claim he wasn’t fast thinking in a pinch. He barely missed a beat, letting his balance drop with one leg leading out, counting on gravity to pull him down the rapidly increasing slope, allowing him to drop one hand down, skimming the sand before he grabbed her waist, pulling her firmly against himself as he used his momentum to send then both off into the sand.
He could feel her stumbling in her effort to catch her balance, so he kept her locked against him as he started to break into a run - half propelling her forward.
“I got you!” He yelled over the roar of the sand. Or, uh, maybe that was an actual roar. “Don’t stop! I’m right behind you!”
He let go of her waist and pushed her forward.
no subject
Even as he pushes her ahead, she's almost bracing herself for him to not show up behind her. The roar is still echoing in her ears when she hears it again as she pushes herself forward, running until the ground seems to stop vibrating under her feet.
Panting heavily, Clara turns around with wide eyes; the part of her protective gear that was over her head has fallen away, and her hair sticks to her cheeks her forehead as her heart slams in her chest.
no subject
It isn’t that he’s particularly altruistic. Or at least he doesn’t consider himself such. He thinks it’s practical - splitting up rises the chance of one of them escaping, and if he doesn’t-
Well. He’d deal with that if it happened. He’s got no intention of dying today.
He’s still running, heaving footsteps pounding into the sand with nearly every leap. He’s rewarded with the knowledge that he’s definitely the target now - a quick glance over his shoulder shows Clara running away with smooth sand behind her, and behind him what looks like a moving mountain.
Okay, great. Perfect planning, Cassian. Now what?
He almost misses it - the little wisp of bare rock under the sand. He almost runs right by it, but the animal instinct in the back of his mind that’s kept him alive this long immediately marks it. He shifts gears suddenly, almost falling as he scrambled to change course, running right for the rock. Rock above, maybe rock below, right?
At first he almost despairs - the rock he first hits slides under him and nearly sends him sprawling down the dune. But there, a few feet ahead —
He lands on the rock with a heart hammering and legs that want to keep running so desperately he almost lets them. But instead, he halts, freezing completely.
He watches the monstrous dune approach him as if he’s awaiting death. Better hope you’re as smart as you think you are, he chastises himself in the split second he has available to him.
But then the dune shifts, avoiding the rock, and goes around, and past him.
He doesn’t move for a good two minutes - Clara out of sight over the displaced mountains of sand. But once he’s sure the creature is well on its way in the opposite direction, he finally lets out a long long breath.
He walks back over the rock as carefully and quietly as he can until finally the sands part and he can see her standing there - beautiful in a sort of frantic sort of way. He cant help the little inward grin. Worried for him, maybe?
He gives a weak wave as he walks toward her.
no subject
There's no reason to keep standing there, she realizes, but she makes herself stay just a little longer. Did anyone know him here, did he say? She can't remember, but if he doesn't, she'll tell everyone a man named Brassos arrived and then died saving her. Her thoughts are still on the fact that he'd used himself as bait when she sees movement, a flicker first and then&mdash-
"Holy shite," she whispers to herself before running to meet him halfway. There's a small woman tackle-hugging him as soon as she's close enough, and then she punches his shoulder (ineffectually because she has no idea how to punch). "You almost died!"
In answer to his internal question: yes, quite worried, and now very relieved.
no subject
Then he winces a little dramatically and offers her a rueful grin.
“All I did was run - creature who travels through sand can’t run through rock. Don’t worry. No desperate heroics, just very good at running.”
The smile pulls a little wider, and he can’t help but think that in a different situation he would absolutely kiss her - if he didn’t have to worry about being stuck here and having to rely on each other as a group for who knows how long. If this was a jaunty vacation with a clear and easy escape route? Then sure, why not go for it. As it is, maybe better not to immediately complicate his life.
So instead he just gives her another hug - to reassure her, then gestures back to the camp with his head.
“Let’s not tempt it back. I could drink a moon dry.”
no subject
"I've never heard someone say they could drink a moon. I like it. C'mon, this way." She gently tugs at his arm, preparing to lead.
"Won't take long to get there. And thank you for keeping me alive. I should've said that first," Clara realizes sheepishly.
no subject
“You’re welcome,” he replied with a grin. Really - he has a bit of a stupid streak that means he’ll do it for a lot of people. Not everyone. Some people deserve a blaster bolt through the skull, and he’ll take a sand worm in the meantime. But Clara is definitely one of the Good Ones, as far as he’s concerned, so he’s more than likely to keep doing stupid things on her behalf.
Besides, if she keeps smiling at him like that when she does it, it doesn’t even feel like altruism.
“You don’t need to thank me,” he replies cheerfully, despite the way his suit is currently whisking all the sweat off his skin from the running. “Happy to do it.”
no subject
"Let's try to meet under better circumstances next time. Deal?" she asks, looking up at him. There's still lingering concern in her gaze, and she squeezes his arm gently.
We can probably wrap here to continue with date part 2?
“Deal.”