Gral attempts to rework the Bargain to allow such an alteration, while healing the Winged damaged in this way. To the Brass Buzzards, Gral gives them a task far more to their liking:
Track down the remainder of the demons around the Fortress, and take their wings.
As for the crippled Winged, have them develop a new language based on the work of the Great Web, designed to be understandable by everyone: a Bargainer's Tongue, if you would.
Gral: 5
Buzzards: 2 v 1
Winged: 3Now that contractual alteration has failed, Gral delves into the Bargain itself. Bizarre symbols appear on its feathers and stream out into the air, where the vulture snatches them and rearranges them into new, progressively more complex shapes. The fundamental truths of Bargaining are laid bare, and restructured so that they do not extract a price when none is owed. If all parties have agreed to a pact, why should its fulfillment create a debt of blood and pain?
The spikes perforating the Winged Spiderlings' bodies retract, and metal infuses their silk instead. Ragged holes remain behind, but they bleed, scab over and scar in fast-forward until the puncture wounds have mostly healed.
Gral gives a command, and a mob of Brass Buzzards descends on every demon with wings. Their wounds make the assault ineffective, but most of the sand's creatures are too startled to retaliate right away.
As the Winged spiderlings recover from their ordeal, they study Nazir's system of knotwork and craft a more accessible written language of their own. It is essentially a revised version of the existing code, scratched into glass slabs as linework rather than tied into a strand of silk. The Buzzards can understand it well enough, though the knot-based patterns don't come as easily to them as to the Spiderlings.
Hynsyr is inspired by his newest act of creation. He attempts to teach his mortal children to transmute their magic into solid Light materials with the art he now calls Light Forging.
4Hynsyr walks into the Lightfolks' city of spires and orders them to gather in the central plaza. They are already capable of transforming their light into physical objects, as demonstrated by the solid-light constructions that comprise the city, but the Titan demonstrates a more advanced version of the technique based the forging of the Rainbow Spears. It allows Lightfolk with enough control over their powers to create more potent materials, light metal or wood made entirely from luminescence. One particularly skilled mortal even crafts a live flower, which he offers up to Hynsyr as tribute. Each of its petals is a slightly different shade of gold.
Ira wanders around the sand killing stray psuedopods and other creations of the sand
6 v 6Ira wanders away from the Dustwalkers, and out into the empty desert surrounding the world. There, she thrusts her mouth into the sand and guzzles it, slurping away as much as will fit inside her body. The earth responds by opening a sinkhole beneath her, which the worm only barely manages to dig her way out of. Fragments of nothiness emerge from the center of the hole and surround Ira. They focus their attention on the World-Eater, but refrain from attacking her.
From one of the goo globes I take some of the outer rings and solidify a sphere of non-light inside of it, then I remove the rings.
2AJAMA strips away the outer layer of an ooze sphere and uses it to contain the non-light. Thick rays of the stuff bounce around inside the sphere, redirected by its black surface in exactly the same way ordinary radiance would be reflected by a mirror. More and more energy is trapped inside the sphere, but gouts of it leak out whenever AJAMA pokes a hole in the membrane. There is technically a complete ball of darkness inside, but if the ring is stripped away it will just dissipate again.
Investigate with assistance of ancestors and other experienced weavers this spiritual webs forming on ancestors near weaving libraries phenomenon, try to find out if its dangerous and if it can be of use.
((To clarify- cobwebs are building up on the libraries themselves. Ancestors are just able to take a closer look at what's going on.))
1 , 4Nazir gathers another conclave of Aetherweavers, who arrive expecting to learn another powerful technique. Instead, they are directed towards the libraries, where the Weaver points out the pieces of ethereal webbing which have begun to gather around spell-threads. The Ancestor spirits describe their own observations, and then research begins in earnest. Nazir helps the Order take samples and pick apart lengths of spontaneously-generated cobwebs, while less skilled Spiderlings chart out the surrounding aetheric currents.
The most plausible theory is proposed by a Scarred named Gilan, who has observed tangles in the cobwebs forming around one particularly intricate spell-tome. He posits that spells recorded in silk retain a small portion of their power. While individual spells have a negligible effect on the Aether, many gathered in one place can produce unique, effectively random magical effects. They will likely become more potent over time, as libraries grow larger.
Driven by fragmented memories and shards of dreams, Awake wanders the sands, and finally finds the glass crater where the world nearly shattered.
There, he finds what remains of a primordial. Perhaps a source of that power which he desperately lacks, being a mere Shardform.
Travel to the Smelter's Grave and don Gyaweft's charred armor, hoping to harness some remaining power within the artifact while hiding my identity from the Sand's enemies
1Awake stretches his legs and wanders towards the glass crater, where patches of fire shine like beacons in the night. On his way he passes an area shrouded entirely in darkness. Oversized spiders routinely crawl out of the cloud to examine their surroundings and patrol the area. They possess a level of organization greater than Awake would expect from mere insects, though for some reason he does not find that particularly surprising.
One group notices Awake and immediately moves to surround him. A single spider scurries back into the darkness, while the ones forming a perimeter shout things like "obsidian" and "should kill it" and "archdemon." The diminutive creatures wave their legs at the Shardform in what they probably think is a menacing way.
"How'd you guys figure out how to make a glass robot? Also new rule, don't damage the glass tower unless you have to, because if we destroy it we'll have one less place the sand can't get us."
Lets see what the glass deer robot can do, then see if we can find any useful items in the upper floors of the tower.
4The automaton can do more or less anything it is ordered to, although it lacks much in the way of creativity or original thought. While it does freeze up when told to do "something productive," its physical capabilities turn out to be significantly more impressive. The robot's body is much more durable than ordinary glass, and it proves itself to be capable of shattering a thick block of glass with only one blow. The deer-men eventually tell it to carry up more material from the base of the tower.
The towers' highest floors are entirely untouched. Not even the Spiderlings have ventured beyond the floors which intersect with Nazir's web. If nothing else, Dr. Bob does find that he can reach the roof by climbing to the very top of the staircase. There's not so much as a guardrail up there, but it does have a good view. Dr. Bob can see the entirety of the world below, from the spire-city of the Lightfolk to the libraries of the Web.
Dr. Bob, the Unmoved Mover
-Spidersilk net.
-Glass chunks
-Improvised glass tools.
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Kūhaku, the Mirror
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Nazir, the Weaver
-God of the great web.
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Ira, the World-Eater
-Blackened Scars
-Woven together
-Debt: Gral: Three Favors Owed
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Gral, the Contractor
-Contract: Winged Spiderlings.
-Contract: Deer-Men: One Favor
-Contract: Ira: Three Favors
-Heavily bandaged.
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AJAMA, the Demiurge
-Ooze-born Body
-Ooze-born Spheres
-Contained Darkness Sphere
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Hynsyr, the Titan
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Awake
-Echoes and instincts
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The Living Sands: An awakened desert that extends outwards indefinitely. It consumed ALTERTHENTERRINTARTINTH, the being which brought it to life, and subsumed a part of their consciousness known as the Empty.
--Demons: Crude imitations of the primordials made from sand and absence.
--Obsidian Archdemon: An obsidian dragon crafted by the Empty itself. It was granted the power to manipulate nothingness.
--Fragments of Emptiness: ?
--Shardforms: Obsidian creatures which absorbed the Empty's already-incomplete consciousness. The broken pieces of ALTERTH's identity they have absorbed give them animalistic intelligence.
-Steel Maggots: Metallic larvae which Gral accidentally created while trying to create bird Emissaries. After they were pulled off of the vulture, few escaped into the desert, where they accepted Gral's peace terms and moved into the shifting bog.
-Brass Buzzards: Brass birds crafted from Gral's feathers. They are infused with the pain it felt while creating them.
The Stars: Glass spheres filled with fire. Gyaweft created them and threw them into the air to illuminate the world.
--New Stars: A second set that isn't accessible through the Great Web. Fortunately, that means they can't be blotted out by Spiderlings.
--Negative Star: A black sphere which radiates darkness, created by AJAMA after Gyaweft's death. It hangs above the bone tree.
Nazir's Web: A giant web that begins in the desert and reaches up towards the stars.
--Silken Nest: A new star that the winged spiderlings have claimed as a nest. It can only be reached by gliding or descending on strands of silk.
Knot-Writing: A written language Nazir formulated so that Aetherweavers could record their spells. It involves weaving complex knots into silk, and therefore comes intuitively to Spiderlings but is almost impossible for anyone else to comprehend.
--Tapestries: Libraries of spells and other knotwork which have been woven together and hung from the great web. Some have begun to collect aetheric cobwebs.
Spiderlings: A race of intelligent spiders which can live on light. They cover both the stars and the great web.
--Dustwalkers: A Spiderling subspecies which can feed on sand as well as light. They live on the sand and fight an asymmetrical war against it for survival.
--Winged Spiderlings: Defeated Spiderlings who made a deal with Gral. They received wings in exchange for service, and have built a nest on one of the new stars.
--Aetherweavers: A few Spiderlings who can perform magic by spinning aetheric webs. Nazir taught them the basics of their craft, allowing them to create fairly intricate wards against evil.
-Order of Strands: The first Spiderlings to learn the art of Aetherweaving. Many have strained their minds and bodies to hone their abilities, making them feeble despite their mystical strength.
--Ancestors: Weavers who have achieved immortality by becoming spirits bound to the great web. They are incorporeal, and their astral bodies make it easier for them to manipulate aether.
--Scarred Spiderlings: Spiderlings who have gained great strength and endurance because of their mistreatment by the Brass Buzzards. They built a market but have mixed feelings about Gral and his servants.
Shifting Bog: A large pool of mud drawn from the sand by Kuhaku. Islands rapidly form and dissolve as the sand beneath it moves. It has been tainted with Nazir's venom.
Glass Tower: A tower made of glass, raised from the sands by Gyaweft. It extends upwards through the web, tall enough that its upper floors reach the stars.
Black Ooze: A patch of black goo created by AJAMA which can grow by absorbing sand. A column of ooze goes deep beneath the earth, where it breached a reservoir of Emptiness.
Lightfolk: A species of humanoid mortals born from Hynsyr's golden light. Their powers of creation threaten to overwhelm their bodies, causing their inner light to warp chaotically. Many have begun to train so that they can gain more control over this ability.
--Prismatics: Seven lightfolk which glow brighter than the rest. They were hewn from the rainbow light of Hynsyr's eyes.
The Seven Rainbow Spears: Weapons Hynsyr forged from a rogue splinter of his soul and gave to the Prismatics. They amplify their wielders' magic immensely, and provide slightly more control over their powers of creation.
Light Spires: A rudimentary settlement made by the Lightfolk using their creation magic.
Einyar: A sea of golden light drawn from Hynsyr's aura. It preserves the spirits of the Lightfolk after death, so that the cycle may advance.
Deer-Men: A humanoid race with the heads of deer. Dr. Bob originally crafted them from the silk of Nazir's web. They were granted superior dexterity through a contract with Gral.
Bone Fortress: A giant tree grown from one of Ira's teeth, and given to the Dustwalkers as a gift. It has become a large fortress.
Three-Headed Worm: A juvenile sandworm created by Ira to serve the Dustwalkers.
Glass Crater: When Gyaweft flew his Sunship into the ground, it melted a wide swathe of the sand into glass. Fiery essence spilled from the ship still burns here, and sealed fault lines radiate from the impact site.
--Smelter's Grave: The center of the crater. Gyaweft's corpse lies here, alongside the molten remains of his Sunship.
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Topic: Sand & Souls - Let There Be Turns (Read 61939 times)