Ira focuses on honing her nothingness powers again.
"These beings are worrisome"
2Ira calms her mind so that she can concentrate on her heartbeat. She lets the Silent thumping draw her into a trance, where Nothingness beckons to her like sunken treasure from the deep. She finds herself falling into a rhythm, breathing more slowly, and even allowing some Non-breath to leak out of her mouth. There is a palpitation. Ira gags on something as the sand in her stomach works its way back up. It merges with the Absence in her breath, hardening into a sharp ball of rock which nevertheless fails to harm her throat.
When she coughs it up, a jagged lump of obsidian flies out of her mouth. It hits the ground at speed and lodges itself in a pile of sand. The sandworm experimentally tries to repeat the process. Another piece of black stone exits her gullet, this time shaped like a perfect block. She finds that she can will the stone to harden in any shape she wants. Controlling its velocity is also possible, which is handy when she's trying to spit out a wall instead of a projectile. Attacks have their nuances too, though. Ira can do anything from a cannonball to a rain of needles.
"RIP, TEAR AND FEED!!!"
Kill and eat them, then use half of their strength to make myself bigger and with a tougher exoskeleton. Then vomit my offspring, and make sure it has the same organ as I.
Meruem: 6 vs. Horde: 5
4 , 6Meruem leaps into the demons' formation and becomes a cloud of whirling limbs. He decapitates one monster with a powerful backhand, smashes two more against each other until they collapse, then rips the heart of a monkey-shaped demon straight out of its chest. The rest of the horde gnaws at his flanks, leaving deep bite-marks in his flesh, but that only brings them closer to Meruem's stinger. He injects venom into each of them in rapid succession, causing their bodies to flake away until nothing remains. The last survivor, a shark with spider legs, leaps at the Spawner and closes its jaws around his throat. It is torn off and unceremoniously ripped to pieces.
Wisps of Nonexistent essence rise from the corpses. Meruem gathers it up, then swallows every spirit in one gulp. They crawl through his stomach and into the essence-bladder, which swells until it is nearly bursting at the seams. Some of the Nothingness seeps out into his body. The Spawner embraces it, allowing it to bond to his flesh. He feels a sudden sensation of pressure as his carapace becomes too small. It cracks open, allowing his new body to burst out. It is reinforced by Nothing, which manifests as black swirls that dot his carapace. He also gains a faint connection to something in the distance.
When he has acclimated to the changes, Meruem vomits out the rest of the stored essence. It merges with the contents of his stomach on the way back up, becoming a misshapen ball of flesh. Organs and body parts form within the cyst, including an essence bladder similar to the Spawner's. Further mutations create legs and wings, each from a different kind of insect. The only matching parts are the eyes, which are utterly black. Little pieces of Absence swirl inside.
Hynsyr continues his practice towards Spear Mastery. Nothing less than the ability to rapidly arm his Hundred Armed Form will be enough.
3Hynsyr unfolds his Hundred Armed Form, then reaches outwards with his many limbs. Spears fall into some of his hands, but not into others. Despite his mastery over the form itself, he finds it difficult to focus on every single arm in rapid succession. That makes it difficult for him to visualize a spear in each one, at least unless he's willing to allow flaws to creep into the working. It's an issue that stems not from his processing speed, but from his limited ability to focus. With that in mind, Hynsyr tries a different approach. For a single instant, he divides his mind into a hundred separate streams of thought.
The sheer amount of mental activity to keep up with is overwhelming. Thousands of individual thoughts and visualizations race through his brain at once, shouting over one another and competing for attention. There's no semblance of organization, much less the mental clarity that he needs to invoke the spears. A few flickers of light appear in each hand, but interference between thought-processes keeps them from solidifying. In his next attempt, Hynsyr makes his hundred selves coordinate with each other instead. After several seconds spent grouping thoughts together and deciding upon common courses of action, a full complement of spears drops into his hands.
"What would you all want? A land you can call your own? Peace with spider-kind? Protection?"
Apollyon bobs up and down.
"We want purpose. Something bigger than selves. But maybe also other things. A land? Better lives? A role in the world? Before we had a place to be and thing to do. We helped sand, got directed by the Empty thing. That is gone now."
...
"Tell us how to help, what to strive for. We will follow."Continue radiating my enthralling light, walk between the entranced, and crush the heart under my hoof. The spider god will be no more.
Without their god, they'll have no one to lead them. What a perfect chance to introduce myself as their new deity, and guide them to a bright future. I did not intent to cause harm to them, and only attacked those who rejected me and resisted against my will.
Once the heart has been rid of, gather the spiderlings and give them an offer: To serve me and join my herd, abandoning their dead god. If they agree to, I will grant them protection from their enemies and guidance. If they refuse, forcibly convert them into my thralls and indoctrinate them into my cult. They already failed to resist my charms once, and they will be lost without their spider god giving them the required strenght and cohesion.
Have the Life Machine draw all the water from the border of the Wetlands, and redirect it onto Nazir's battlefield, also providing a break for the encroaching grain.
Scramble a team of Ironwinged to retrieve Nazir's body, and bring him back to the Great Web.
My children, dont fall for the lies of this false god, as they would lead you only to damnation
Try to utilise massive power of spiderkinds faith to shapeshift into massive body of golden light and heavily burn this bovine monstrosity, have primelings assist me in this ritual, its not like you can trust sentinels competence in this matters.
BURN.
Aton: 6 , 6
Nazir: 3 & Primelings: 2
Life Machine: 5 vs. BURN: ͘ ͠ ͠ ͟ ̧ ͜ ̕ ̕ ҉ ͟ ͡ ͡ ̨ ͝ ̷ ҉
Ironwinged: 1
Gral: 6 , 3
Merchants: 3
Web: 4
Dustwalkers: 6
Ironweavers: 2
Nazir inhales fire. It burns his windpipe and his lungs, but in between bursts of numbing agony he croaks out a few words. Some drift up to the Great Web, where Spiderlings mobilize en masse. Others reach the Wetlands, where Gral agrees to a Bargain that could save the spider's life. Merchants, Ironwinged and Buzzards all leap into action. They collaborate with the High Council of the Web, who plan to stage a rescue operation, and alert the Dustwalkers of their creator's plight. The troops of the Bone Fortress march for a second time, towards a second fiery hole in the earth.
The Life Machine rips energy from the edges of the Wetlands. It sends it outwards as a wave, to sweep over the inferno that has enveloped Nazir. Vitality reacts unpredictably as it slams into the destructive energies of the blaze. Some power is swept aside, causing nearby sand-dunes to transform into dry soil. Some melds with the flames, forming blooms of molten obsidian. Petals spray outwards, seeding the area with lesser fires that creep towards the Weaver. There is a moment of respite for him as Not-fire scatters. Gral uses the opening to reach through the Bargain. It peels off aspects of its body to hurl at Aton and Nazir. The Herder's hooves are weighed down by metal feathers, while the nourishing magic of the Omni-Grain floods Nazir's dying body.
There is a period of relative calm as the flames regroup and swarms of mortal Spiderlings approach. Aton drags himself towards the Weaver one laborious step at a time, struggling under the increased weight of his hooves. The spider has just enough energy to call to the Primelings, some of whom are still alive. They pluck threads of aether out of the air, but their spirits have been weakened by the flames. The body that they weave is too weak to contain the spirit of a primordial. Nazir tries cramming his spirit into it anyway, and the strands break apart. They blow away on an aetheric wind, leaving his soul adrift. It decays slowly, bound to his heart by only the thinnest of threads.
Aton steps closer. He is lifting his hooves farther off the ground, now. That isn't quite enough to protect him when the cavalry arrives. Spiderling tribes from the Web and the Fortress crawl across the battlefield, armed with Pacts that offer them some protection against the bull's aura. The light of the disc still strikes the blind, disrupting their spells and their aim, but whenever they pause the magic of the Bargain compels them to keep moving. A few acid-blasts and fireballs strike come close enough to burn away patches of Aton's fur. A force blast breaks off part of his horn, causing the golden disc to waver. Tongues of flame close in, eager to consume the spirits of Nazir's creations. They sweep across Aton on their way to the spider.
The Absent Fire reaches Nazir just moments before the bull. It eats away his body, allowing Aton to put a feather-laden hoof directly through the Weaver's heart.
"Oh shit I fucked with the natural order of things and I created demons!"
Grab them and quickly throw them out a window, then shut the window and observe what the deer demons do.
Dr. Bob: 1 & Deer-Men: 4 vs. Fiends: 1Dr. Bob clutches one of the Deer-Demons and swings it towards the window. It doesn't budge. Claws burst from the tips of her fingers, spattering him with drops of blood as they pierce the skin. The demon raises her arms, as if to rake her hands across his face, but is interrupted when a silk net lands on her face. The other Deer-Men are dogpiling their corrupted kin, using weapons made from silk or glass to restrain them. They bind the three tightly, then open a window so that they can be hurled out onto the sands. The demons hit the ground with enough force to break bones, but none of them seem to mind.
In fact, their bodies knit back together with alarming speed. Their broken limbs are gradually straightening out, then scarring over where bits of a shattered humerus or tibia hit the skin. In the meantime, the demons are growing additional claws and spurs of bone to cut themselves free of their bindings. When they stand, spikes and sharp protrusions jut out of random parts of their bodies. They retract inwards, leaving behind bloody wounds that the Deer-Demons regenerate from within moments. After that, they start hammering the sides of the bus. The reinforced glass is strong enough to withstand it, but a few particularly powerful blows create hairline fractures. One of the Deer-Men standing next to Dr. Bob nudges him.
"Uh. Maybe we should get away?"Ashe takes chase, trying to find the yellow fish.
Perhaps there is a whole school of them somewhere!
2 v 4Ashe flips over and swims after the yellow fish. It flies through the water at a blistering pace, occasionally even jumping up into the air so that it can hop from one body of water to another. She follows it through more lakes, rivers and streams than she has the time to count, but the fish is always just a few body-lengths away from her. Once, as she's trudging through a particularly shallow pond, it even swims a circle around her before darting off again. Ashe splashes through the water to try and catch up with it, but her quarry gone within seconds. She doesn't even see it again until she uses some rapids as a shortcut.
The river takes her past a muddy hollow in the ground, where the fish is waiting for her. She jets out of the water, fully prepared to pursue it, but instead of running away it just splashes her with its tail. Up close, Ashe can see that it's a yellow guppy just like the one that outraced her in the dream. It leaps into the air three times, making three distinctive plops as it falls back into the water. As if on cue, the rest of the school emerges from concealing bits of mud or grass. They swirl around Ashe playfully, then start tagging each other and darting off in random directions.
Dr. Bob, the Unmoved Mover
-Regent of the Tower
-Spidersilk net.
-Improvised glass tools.
-Glass automaton
-Perpetual-motion bus
-Vial of Einyar
-Red Liquor
--------------------------------
Kūhaku, the Mirror
-Catatonia
-Rain-Maker
--------------------------------
Nazir, the Weaver
-God of the great web.
-Burning
--------------------------------
Ira, the World-Eater
-Empty
-Woven together
-Debt: Gral: Two Favors Owed
-Minor burns
--------------------------------
Gral, the Contractor
-Contract: Winged Spiderlings
-Contract: Ira: Two Favors
-Pinion Blades
--------------------------------
AJAMA, the Demiurge
-Ooze-born Body
-Ooze-born Spheres
-Sphere of Darkness
--------------------------------
Hynsyr, the Titan
-Hundred Armed Form
-Knowledge of Essence
-Edge of Infinity
-Maker of spears
-100 spears of light
--------------------------------
Awake
-B͜Ù̴R̡͡N̵̨
--------------------------------
Ashe, the Collector
-Brass feathers (underwater).
-Glass trinkets
--------------------------------
Meruem, the Spawner
-Flawed essence bladder
-Infused with Nothingness
-Firstborn
--------------------------------
Aton, the Herder
-Seared
-Broken horn
-Weighed down
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: Spirits made from the scattered pieces of ALTHERTH. They were driven out of the sand when Ira consumed the absent heart.
Apollyon: A Fragment which usurped AJAMA’s original body and converted it into Nothingness.
--Absent Ooze: A Nonexistent strain of Black Ooze that Apollyon can produce. Other Fragments often use it to create makeshift bodies.
Shardforms: Obsidian creatures which absorbed the Empty's already-incomplete consciousness. The broken pieces of ALTERTH's identity they possess give them animalistic intelligence.
--Awakened Shardforms: A herd of Sharforms who were granted sapience by Gral. They’ve agreed to provide the Sliken Nest with raw materials in return for goods.
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.
Steel Grubs: Steel maggots that have been bound with Pact-collars and transformed into livestock. They have grown larger than their sapient kin, but are unintelligent and largely peaceful.
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.
--Ekhor: A proud warrior who wears a larger variant of Sentinel Plate. He was nearly killed in the War of Sands.
--Sekhmet: A Primeling with flaws in the Weavings that form her mind. Despite being a brilliant tactician, her behavior is consistently very odd.
Merchants: Four steel vultures made from Gral’s essence. They are capable of using the Bargain.
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, potato, corn, and bean plants created by Dr. Bob.
Suspicious Mushrooms: Mushrooms that sprouted in the Glass Tower after Dr. Bob’s disastrous attempts at brewing alcohol. They spawn clouds of hallucinogenic spores.
Atlas:
The Living Sands: ALTERTH once awakened the desert and allowed it to consume him. For a time his creation was infinite, but now most of the sand has died. The few surviving pieces are a shadow of what they once were.
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.
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. When the sand was alive, islands in the bog constantly formed and dissolved. 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.
--Sandcastles: A series of elaborate sandcastles built around the moat. They were crafted so masterfully that they won’t dissolve in rain. Ashe later added an incredibly detailed sand city of her own.
--Garden: An irrigated garden containing several different types of crops.
--Laboratory: A room furnished with chemistry equipment and various glass containers.
Light Spires: A glowing city made by the Lightfolk using their creation magic.
--Temple of Yig: A golden temple which houses Yig, the First Tribute. It is an intricately-carved cathedral with walls made from an aurora.
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.
Canal: A shallow canal that Ira dug to fulfill one of her favors to Gral. It was meant to channel water from the Wetlands to various other parts of the world, but it overflowed and flooded the Glass Tower instead.
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.
English: A written script based on twenty-six letters and a few punctuation symbols. It was introduced by Dr. Bob and is primarily used by the Deer-Men.
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.
Eight-Talon Way: A powerful martial art created by the Brass Buzzards. It is purely offensive in nature, but consists of strikes so lethal that defense isn’t usually necessary.
Agriculture: Farming is only feasible in the wetlands, but plants watered by Kuhaku’s rain grow quickly. The Deer-Men have been taught to cultivate and use several kinds of crops.
Prayer: A technique which allows Lightfolk to tap into their connections with Yig and Einyar. The Prismatics have learned how to use it to communicate with Hynsyr.
Photosynthesis Enchantments: A personal enhancement Weaving developed by the Ironwinged. It increases the amount of energy that Spiderlings can absorb from light.
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.
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. They were later sealed away.
--Silence Ooze: A strain of chaos ooze that can feed on silence. AJAMA transplanted some of it to the empty desert, where it has grown rapidly.
--Crusted Ooze: Semisolid ooze variants which have been hardened by intense pressure. They take slightly longer to grow as a result of their density.
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.
Life Machine: A machitech device that can be used to shunt vitality from one area to another. Additional upgrades gave it the ability to drain life from sand, which a Merchant used to create a patch of fertile soil around the machine.
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.
Warpriests: A Lightfolk religious order which protects Einyar, the Temple of Yig, and the Light Spires themselves.
Ministry of Light: Civil servants appointed by Hynsyr to oversee the Light Spires. The seven Prismatics were installed as founding members.
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Topic: Sand & Souls - Let There Be Turns (Read 61594 times)