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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
He can respect that, even as it's nonsense in his ears, only explained when people break down their names to mean anything. His chosen surname was both apparent and not: Mansbane. Nonsense syllables strung together for a particular meaning.
The relief in Izuminokami Kanesada's breath in prompts Licyn into lifting his head, a lazy lathing of his tongue over the man's chin and jaw and neck and below the ear followed by a wet nuzzle of his nose, and the return to allowing himself the pleasure of being brushed through. It's rare, even back home, because Rillin isn't the sort to need busy work for his hands, and he usually has to find someone overfond of canines to provide the same pleasant oasis on his travels. Usually the young. They're always more enthusiastic, and he, unscrupulous enough to appreciate that in its innocence. )
no subject
Hey, hey, I get it. I'm still really pretty.
[He rubs his hands over Licyn's face again, scratching between his ears and rubbing them again before lifting his wolf head closer.
It must be a bone-deep human urge that overtakes him next, because he bends down to press a simple kiss to Licyn's furry forehead. A surprise to himself, but Kanesada shakes it off as quickly as he can.]
Who said you were allowed to be this cute, huh? Pretty sure it wasn't me.
[Right. Right! He still has to finish the brush job, though, and he picks up said brush again to get on with it.]
no subject
That he lets his mouth open just enough to give a canine grin and cants his head is overkill in selling it, on purpose. Pet all of me. )
no subject
Unbelievable.
[He tugs more fur free of the brush, but before he continues, he scratches the wolf's chin. And when he finally gets to brushing Licyn's neck, he starts to hum a tune, his strokes with the brush more languid, a little more relaxed. He still does his appointed job, though, petting the areas he's worked on to make sure the fur lays right and feels softer before moving down to Licyn's chest, working in between those silly front paws.]
no subject
... He falls asleep.
... And he snores very, very quietly. )
no subject
...If he conked out just from this, then maybe he's really tired. So, sleep it is. Maybe he'll wake up when Kanesada finishes. Which he intends to do!
He rubs Licyn's belly, just not as vigorously as he would if the other man were awake, and it probably doesn't count as the really good belly rub he said he'd give him. That's something to worry about later. Then there's the matter of Licyn's tail, which is all the way over there. For being kind of short in human form, his wolf size doesn't quite match and even though Kanesada is tall and thus has long limbs, they only reach so far.
Well. Hope Licyn doesn't get mad about that. Assuming he even realizes.
It doesn't help that Kanesada's legs are going numb with this dead weight on them. Rescuing his legs is going to be a task and a half since waking Licyn isn't the goal here. But that's fine, he can do it! He's strong! He can piggy-back Nagasone Kotetsu with no problem, and he's a pretty beefy guy!
...So is Licyn, it turns out. Fuck, he's dense. Like, just a solid hunk of meat. Please don't wake up. Don't let Kanesada's choked off grunts be too loud or his hands too rough. He just wants to be nice, for once. Sleep is valuable, he knows that! If anyone interrupted his sleep for anything less than an enemy movement or mission assignment, he'd be pissed!
But did Licyn really have to choose his legs to pass out on? What a guy!]
no subject
( Somewhere in the process of all that wolfhandling, or more like the lack of any harmful intent and no strange noises or sounds from the greater camp, Licyn slowly wakes. The contortion act of getting him offloaded is helped by his grunt and waving paws as he hefts himself away from Izumi so he can move freely. It's just also accompanied by a silvered light spreading across his fur, until a very nude man is there, crouching. He shakes his head, shifting balance to run one hand through it, then stands and starts in on stretching with the lazy intent to get dressed and head out, eventually. )
You could wake me up, love, you hardly need to indulge a good nap. Not bad with a brush, either.
( he smiles, eyes lingering on Izumi's luxurious locks. )
Practise makes the difference.
no subject
[He really had been trying! But there Licyn goes, waking up at his own pace. At least Kanesada's legs are freed and he takes the opportunity to straighten them out in front of himself, rubbing some life back into his thighs.
You know, right in time for Licyn to turn human again in all his unclothed stature. Right there in front of Kanesada's face. He does his best to ignore that detail.]
But it was a good nap, right? You're welcome.
[He can't help but throw Licyn a smirk.]
Maybe you can return the favor sometime. But for now, get your clothes on before sand sneaks its way into unmentionable places again.
[This desert sucks.]
no subject
( He smiles, though he also heads to his neatly folded clothing and starts to dress. )
You know how to reach me, one way or another.
( Dressed, he shifts to the tent's exit, finds his boots... and holds them in hand when he leaves with a wink and a backward half wave. )
Sweet dreams, Izuminokami Kanesada.
( And he's gone. )