Seems, that this gift was not enough to have dustwalkers liberated from oppression of sand demons, sand is yet to be conquered.
Divide already experienced crew of aetherweavers in groups working on how to improve ordinary nonweaver spiders to something halfway to demigodhood to make soldier caste worthy to be led by demigods:
First group would work on altering genetics and implanting new artificial glands
Second would try making enchanted armour out of glass or metal .
Oversee, what they are doing. And assist.
Group One: 5 / Group Two: 1 / Nazir: 4The Aetherweavers split into groups, and volunteers from other parts of the web are brought up as test subjects. Nazir helps them further their knowledge of Weaving, biology, and crafting, so that they can create a race of Spiderlings worthy to serve as lieutenants under the ten Demigods. The new caste must be stronger than all the others, so that they can protect the Web from the creature of sand and absence which lurk below it.
One group works to improve upon Spiderlings' natural physiology. Some of their Weavings induce mutations, allowing Spiderlings to grow acid glands and produce silk ten times stronger than steel. They manufacture stronger and more efficient muscle fibers, and tweak the genes of their test subjects until their chitin is nearly unbreakable. By adapting an old self-enhancement weaving, one of the first spells that the Aetherweavers created on their own, they even develop a way to enchant bodies, granting abilities that would be impossible to reproduce with mere organs. Volunteers who receive the modifications begin spitting fireballs and teleporting to nearby strands.
The group assigned to research armor and weapons doesn't fare as well. Winged Aetherweavers weave metal into basic equipment, but someone makes a terrible mistake when they try to enchant the tools. Underlying flaws in the Weavings attached to the weapons cause them to become cursed instead, frequently killing or injuring volunteers who attempt to use them. Only Nazir's intervention prevents a failed matter-annihilation experiment from disintegrating everyone nearby.
"Okay kids lets do something that's potentially stupid and go on a field trip."
Get all the deer men and the deer robot to go in to the bus and drive it out to explore the world, if anything attacks the bus drive back to the tower.
4While Dr. Bob's allies pile into the bus, he sits down in the driver's seat and familiarizes himself with the controls. There's one big wheel to control the direction of the wheels, two petals to adjust the speed of the engine disk, and a lever that can put the vehicle into park or reverse if need be. It's all fairly intuitive, although Dr. Bob has to spend a few minutes practicing to learn how to turn, park, and navigate around obstacles. When he's gotten the hang of it, he drives the bus through the entrance-hole and brings it out onto the Great Web.
It doesn't take long to descend to the sands, which have quieted down a bit in the Doctor's absence. Occasionally a few eyes will rise from the ground to watch the group, but for now they seem content to leave the magic
school bus alone. The Deer-Men stare out the windows, and a few ask their creator to provide details about things they drive past. These include a puddle of black ooze, a Brass Buzzard that passes overhead, and a live demon which Bob drives away from as quickly as possible. Fortunately, it isn't fast enough to catch up with them.
The first major stop is Einyar, the sea of light. Dr. Bob pulls up to its coastline and opens the doors so that Deer-Men can wade into the liquid, and take a closer look at the glowing silhouettes which dance in the depths of the golden realm.
Venture forth. And find the souls of lords within the flame.
4Gral places Awake on the ground a safe distance from the flames, then uses the thermal currents to climb back into the air. The steel vulture flies away, towards a a glowing city that can just barely be seen on the horizon.
When the primordial has disappeared from sight, Awake picks himself up and ventures into the center of the crater. Patches of flames litter the ground, and the glass underfoot becomes so hot that it glows, but the Shardforms' obsidian body makes him somewhat resistant to the environment. His body only begins to melt as he approaches the Grave itself, and the puddle of molten Sunship that has collected there. Awake continues moving anyway, until his legs threaten to collapse under his weight.
A suit of metal armor lies on the ground beside the pool, filled with nothing but smoke and ashes. A glass axehead lies on the ground several feet away from it, partially submerged in molten glass.
I try modify some ooze to be able to feed on the darkness and grow by this.
1AJAMA deposits a drop of black ooze on the ground, where it grows into a larger sample. After the puddle has become deep enough, the black sphere submerges itself in it, and allows its senses to expand outwards into the goop. Once it has refamiliarized itself with the nature of ooze, the Demiurge begins to tweak and transmute the substance, and specifically its ability to assimilate other substances. It shifts its attention away from the sand as AJAMA works, but the sudden shift in behavior disrupts the primodial's focus. It loses its grip on the ooze, and the modification goes awry.
Instead of absorbing darkness, blobs of ooze start feeding on seemingly random substances and concepts. Something freezes as one piece of the pool starts assimilating heat, and AJAMA's reactions becomes sluggish as it touches another that can devour awareness. A few droplets even become cannibalistic and consume other kinds of ooze, including the modified sludge which forms the Demiurge's body.
Ira cautiously probes around the non-thing trying to figure out what it is and if she can defeat it.
2 v 2Ira digs in the direction of the the heartbeats, ignoring the earths's feeble attempts to bar her way. The sand around the non-thing is littered with shards of obsidian, but she eats those too, by using her many rows of teeth to grind the stones to dust. They are more filling than ordinary sand, though just as unimportant in the grand scheme of things. Ira digests the faint traces of essence within them anyway.
As she approaches the source of the unvibrations, she breaches another, thicker piece of obsidian, and tumbles into hollow sphere of black stone. The World-Eater can sense the non-thing in the center of the chamber even without the benefit of light. It is a black heart grown from ALTERTH's nonexistent flesh, and the ultimate source of the Nothingness which pervades the sand. Despite reeking of the desert, it feels like a freshly-spilled drop of Ira's own blood.
Hynsyr gathers his light and attempts to connect himself and Einyar to the First Tribute Yig. The Golden Flower which had been gifted in love would in turn become the ultimate symbol of Hynsyr's love. Transfusing the Flower Yig with his essence so that not only would it act as a gateway with which the Lightfolk spirits in Einyar can reincarnate from once they've spent some time in the Sea of Light but also using it's connection with Hynsyr to birth new Lightfolk into the world.
4Hynsyr names the Golden Flower Yig, and infuses it with a glowing stream of his essence. The plant grows as astral bindings link it to the Titan, and more buds branch off from its stem. These buds bloom as Hynsyr imbues the flower with another connection, this time to Einyar, and the the flower grows hundreds of new blossoms. Droplets of nectar collect in the center of each, made from the same liquid light as the sea itself. The primordial can see tiny Lightfolk floating inside, waiting to be born.
A single drop of nectar falls to the ground. It becomes a new mortal when it hits the sand, with a fully-formed golden body. It is not one of the first Lightfolk, which Hynsyr crafted with his own hands, but it still bows to the Titan in recognition of the life he has given it through Yig.
Drop off the mortal, then fly on to the Light City in the distance. Where there's civilization, there are also bargains.
Send the Ironwinged down to the Bone Fortress, and propose building a market at the location in exchange for weaponry. If they agree, station a few Winged there as representatives of the Silken Nest.
The newly replenished Buzzards are challenged to take out the Dune Demon army near Light City, and then set up a nest there.
Buzzards: 2 v Demons: 2
Ironwinged: 1After depositing Awake in the crater, Gral sets off for the glowing spires of the Lightfolk. The Contractor navigates using the light of the city itself, which makes it glow like a beacon when viewed from the sky, and soon finds itself gliding between the towers made of glowing stone. As Gral hovers near the center of the city, another building rises before his eyes. This one is far taller than the others, and instead of the uniform gold of the other spires it is illuminated by light in every color of the rainbow.
The Prismatic below hefts its spear and looks up at the vulture warily.
---------------------
Meanwhile, a flock of Brass Buzzards retraces Gral's steps, until they locate the horde of demons plaguing the city. They dive down at the creatures of nothingness and attack them with characteristic glee, gouging the demons' sandy flesh with their talons and gouging out eyes with their beaks. They are repulsed by a few well-timed counterattacks, but the army doesn't have enough flying demons to press their advantage after the buzzards retreat back to the air.
Another group of servants carries goods into the cloud of darkness and search for the Dustwalkers' fortress. Before they can find it, they are hit by an errant blob of flesh-eating ooze, which grows by killing and assimilating the majority of the expedition. The survivors retreat after failing to scout out a safe route through the rest of the anti-light.
Dr. Bob, the Unmoved Mover
-Spidersilk net.
-Glass chunks
-Improvised glass tools.
-Glass automaton
-Perpetual-motion bus
--------------------------------
Kūhaku, the Mirror
--------------------------------
Nazir, the Weaver
-God of the great web.
--------------------------------
Ira, the World-Eater
-Blackened Scars
-Woven together
-Debt: Gral: Three Favors Owed
--------------------------------
Gral, the Contractor
-Contract: Winged Spiderlings.
-Contract: Deer-Men: One Favor
-Contract: Ira: Three Favors
-Heavily bandaged.
--------------------------------
AJAMA, the Demiurge
-Ooze-born Body
-Ooze-born Spheres
-Sphere of Darkness
--------------------------------
Hynsyr, the Titan
-Yig, the Golden Flower
--------------------------------
Awake
-Echoes and instincts
--------------------------------
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.
--Absent Heart: ?
-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. They were later granted the ability to weave metal.
--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.
Spider Demigods: Ten entities created by Nazir and a group of the most powerful Aetherweavers. They watch over the Web in Nazir's stead, but are weakened by flaws in their weaving.
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.
--Chaos Ooze: Blobs of ooze which have accidentally been made to assimilate a variety of substances and concepts.
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 glowing city 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.
Author
Topic: Sand & Souls - Let There Be Turns (Read 60619 times)