"Denature!"
Use the essence of heat contained in my armor to denature the strands making up the ward.
Then, continue to chase that dreadful beast.
Shoot web and try to entanglething trying to break the wards
Primelings, legions of sentinels, ancestors and order of strands, there is primordial trying to break protective wards, you know, what to do
"I tire of playing this game of cat and mouse with the sand's servants. No one really gave any good ideas of how to deal with the heart, so I'll just deal with it my way."
Devour the absent heart
Awake: 2 v Nazir: 4
Ira: 5Awake focuses on the heat burning within his armor, then brings it up to the surface. Tongues of flame lash out at his surroundings, causing the air to shimmer and the silk beneath his feet to scorch, but they fail to harm the aetheric web that is closing in on him. The strands snap into place around the Shardform's armor, and when they cannot break through they gum up his joins instead. Awake struggles against them, but is not strong enough to pull himself free before Nazir surrounds him in a second layer of physical webbing. It's impossible to see anything that transpires outside the cocoon, but stabbing pains and a sudden sense of loss confirm his worst fears.
Far above him, Ira turns around and contemplates the Absent Heart. It beats steadily, despite its separation from the sands, but ALTERTH is far too dead to defend itself from attack. So the World-Eater unhinges her jaw, leans over the massive organ, and devours it in one bite. The familiar taste of Nothingness fills her mouth, and a lump of not-flesh slips works its way down her throat and into her chest. Ira's own heart skips a beat, then stops forever. Something else has taken its place.
Numbness spreads through the World-Eater's veins as the Nothingness take hold. When it reaches her skin, the black scars she received from demonic claws fade away. The absence of sensation flows up to her head, and suddenly everything changes. She feels an intrinsic connection to the other beings of nothingness form, and wisps of black smoke erupt from her mouth and eyes.
"We don't need a contract to grow, buzzard. But I have a counteroffer. For my service, I demand a pound of your flesh and the corpses of my brothers."
"That's quite the price, maggot, and quite a rude way to treat that which spawned you. But tell me: why do you feel entitled to such an offer? You are bound, alienated from your kin, and altogether without options. Even if I were to assent, how would you serve?"
"As if you intended to spawn us! We were an accident, Contractor, and we owe you nothing. But if we had served you, we would be Emissaries. So I will be your Herald if we make a pact.
I will hunger for your blood until the price is paid. You should end my existence if you consider it too steep."Hynsyr places the Yig in the Basin and then begins another round of mortal watching. Will his children spread now that their numbers increase? How will their fledgling culture develop in this inhospitable world? Only time will tell.
5 / 3Now the the Light Spires are fully established, the Lightfolk have breathing room to explore the outside world and advance their society. The explorers who first set foot on the sands continue to expand their horizons, in addition to bringing curiosities back to the city itself. A few die, but the presence of Einyar and Yig make that outcome less distressing than it might otherwise be. When the Golden Realm fills out a little it becomes standard practice for living mortals to go on pilgrimages there, so that they can visit and provide company to the dead. The First Tribute also becomes a centerpiece of their culture as well as the city itself. Any birth or re-birth that takes place through it is cause for great celebration.
The Light Spires continue to grow in both size and complexity. While Lightfolk use their powers of creation to fortify their existing towers, and occasionally to turn them into works of art, suburbs pop up just outside city limits. These house newly-created mortals when space in the Spires becomes too scarce. The Lightfolk and Spiderling populations both grow significantly, and urban sprawl continues to take its course. Eventually, there are enough inhabitants for the spires to be divided into seven districts, each watched over by one of the Prismatics.
As Hynsyr gazes into the distance, he notices a group of Spiderlings descending from the Great Web and fighting their way across the sands. In the center of the horde is a single Primeling, holding a white banner woven entirely from silk. The delegation makes a beeline for the Light Spires, then stops just outside of arrow-range. A single, unarmed Spiderling is sent closer to explain that the delegation wishes to speak with Hynsyr.
((Why this chaos ooze isn't willing to just get solved))
Return to the body, ho between the chaos ooze pieces and neutralise it.
4AJAMA recoils from the essence-eating ooze and draws the rest of its essence back into its body. Then it shunts its consciousness between each piece of chaos ooze large enough to be detectable with its senses, and transforms them into inert putty one by one. Most of the ooze is easy to destroy, even if it happens to be near whatever resource it needs to grow, but the few that are dangerous to a disembodied mind need to be dealt with indirectly. The Demiurge throws a clump of sanity-eating ooze straight into the glass crater, where fire urns it away and uses telekinesis to push the essence assimilator it that just injured it deep beneath the sand, where it is unlikely to hurt anyone.
Some chaos ooze still exists, but once AJAMA finishes its task, the dangerous samples have all been denatured or sealed away. They will only be a risk if someone actively tries to uncover them, which would be downright suicidal for most mortals and problematic even for the primordials themselves.
"Hey guys can we get the robot to stop destroying the sand castles, people worked really hard on those."
Lets teach the deer men how to read and write in the English language, as it could be useful at some point, then after that check on the plants.
4When the automaton next approaches the garden, Dr. Bob tells it to stop stepping on sandcastles. Some of the gears in its brain whir as it adjusts its pathfinding mechanisms, and after it crosses the moat again it gives the beach a wide berth. The Deer-Men who had their sandcastles toppled don't seem too distraught, but everyone appreciates looking at the works of art. They'll probably last a long while, too, now that they aren't periodically being knocked over.
Next, Dr. Bob devises a simple system of writing, involving twenty-six symbols that represent the sounds of speech. He grabs a glass rod so that he can trace letters in the sand, then calls the Deer-Men over for a lesson. It's obvious that none of them are going to be writing novels anytime soon, but they listen rapt attention, and many begin tracing out A-B-Cs on their own after their creator has finished instructing them. One even scratches a paragraph onto a block of glass, then passes it around so that everyone else can read it.
Dr. Bob, the Unmoved Mover
-Regent of the Tower
-Spidersilk net.
-Glass chunks
-Improvised glass tools.
-Glass automaton
-Perpetual-motion bus
-Vial of Einyar
--------------------------------
Kūhaku, the Mirror
-Catatonia
-Rain-Maker
--------------------------------
Nazir, the Weaver
-God of the great web.
--------------------------------
Ira, the World-Eater
-Woven together
-Debt: Gral: Three Favors Owed
-Absent Heart
--------------------------------
Gral, the Contractor
-Contract: Winged Spiderlings
-Contract: Deer-Men: One Favor
-Contract: Ira: Three Favors
-Pinion Blades
--------------------------------
AJAMA, the Demiurge
-Ooze-born Body
-Ooze-born Spheres
-Sphere of Darkness
--------------------------------
Hynsyr, the Titan
-Yig, the Golden Flower
-Twelve spears of light
--------------------------------
Awake
-Echoes of ALTERTH
-Smelter's Armor
-Dawn Axehead
-Slightly lopsided
Bestiary:
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 possess give them animalistic intelligence.
Steel Maggots: Metallic larvae which Gral accidentally created while trying to make avian 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.
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.
--Ironwinged: 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.
--Ancestors: Aetherweavers 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.
--Sentinels: A army of biologically and magically augmented Spiderlings, created by elite Aetherweavers with Nazir's guidance. They serve the Spider Demigods, and stand ready to protect the Web alongside them.
Primelings: 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.
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.
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.
Three-Headed Worm: A juvenile sandworm created by Ira to serve the Dustwalkers.
Crops: Hemp and potato plants created by Dr. Bob.
Atlas:
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.
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.
--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.
--Market of Scars: A grand market built by the Scarred Spiderlings in exchange for their resilience. The Ironwinged sell metal equipment there.
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.
--Moat: The Tower is surrounded by a lake. Only one thin bridge connects it to the rest of the sand.
--Garden: A few hemp and potato plants that Dr. Bob planted outside the tower.
Light Spires: A glowing city made by the Lightfolk using their creation magic.
--Golden Mound: A malformed mass of golden light with a small antechamber inside. It was meant to house Yig.
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.
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.
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.
Wetlands: Areas of the sand and the Great Web which Kuhaku continuously showers with water. The rain is heavy enough to form rivers and lakes.
--Abandoned Nests: A nesting ground that was briefly occupied by the Brass Buzzards. It is strewn with metal feathers and bloody talon-prints.
Knowledge:
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.
Bargainer's Tongue: A simplified version of knot-script which can be etched into a flat surface rather than woven into silk. It is comprehensible to non-Spiderlings, but not as intuitive.
Metalworking: Blacksmithing techniques that are typically available to the Ironwinged. They can be used to weave metal objects.
Aetherweaving: A magical discipline which involves spinning spiritual webs. It was taught to the Spiderlings by Nazir and is available to the Tribes, the Primelings, and any other arachnid capable of making silk.
Lightforging: Creation magic unique to the Lightfolk. It is a powerful but chaotic ability which can be used to make solid-light constructs out of one's own aura. More advanced techniques allow practitioners to create complex materials such as metal or wood.
Items:
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.
Absent Heart: The remains of ALTERTH's body, transformed into a living heart. It is the source of all Nothingness.
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.
Pact-Arms: Metal weapons, armor, and tools which can compel their wielders to carry out tasks for the Winged Spiderlings. Most are in the possession of Spiderlings on the Web.
Tribute Tokens: A currency minted by the Ironwinged and infused with the power of the Bargain. They see light use in the Great Web but are not considered especially valuable, so most of the economy still relies upon bartering.
Sentinel Plate: Magical armor developed for use by the Sentinels. It can drain the force of attacks and release it in the form of telekinetic blasts.
Factions:
Spiderling Tribes: Prominent groups of Spiderlings, mostly organized by subspecies. The are scattered across the Web, the stars, and the sand.
--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.
High Council of the Web: The governing body of the Great Web. It consists of delegates from each of the tribes, as well as one Primeling. Most meetings take place in Nazir's nest at the top of the Web.
Lifeweavers: A group of Ancestors who helped Nazir create the Primelings and Sentinels.
Author
Topic: Sand & Souls - Let There Be Turns (Read 60697 times)