One more soul sinks into the sand, where it carves the raw material into a golden body.
Hynsyr, the Titan stands up, and streams of dust fall from its many limbs.
A subsumed consciousness reassembles itself, and something
Empty is reborn within the sand. Barely any of its identity remains.
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Sand will adapt. Form weapons of finesse to combat that which sheer force cannot. Harness the great Empty, what remains of my soul, to destroy those who would selfishly consume you. Wield Anger, that primal emotion of your own invention, to drive away these predators.
1The empty thing whispers to the sand that consumed it. It tells the earth to channel its anger precisely, to eradicate the parasites with Absence, but the sand does not listen. Instead it turns against the voice of its creator, even though that voice is coming from its own body.
A disturbance passes through the earth, and it tries to destroy itself. Hands and pseudopods disintegrate, sinkholes swallow other sinkholes, and matter eats away at the nothingness suffusing it. Parts of the Empty are forced up into the air, where they dissolve, or even deeper into the sand's infinite depths, where they hemorrhage into bubbles and reservoirs. Even the demons destabilize, seizing up or mutilating themselves as they try to separate their sandy bodies from their empty souls.
Swoop by and grab Kuhaku. Wouldn't want anyone dying on us just yet. As soon as that is done, ascend back into the skies, and defend the nest. Snapping strands, eating the larger Spiderlings, swatting the smaller ones off- whatever gets them away from my employees.
Ahem, I wished freedom for my children and let them accept the deals, but now you seem to be stepping too far by consuming sons of my own blood
Create tribe of acid spitting poisonous spiderlings
Also shoot web into annoying bird to get it drop into sands
Gral (airlift): 4
Nazir (acid tribe): 2
Battle for the Nest:
Nazir: 4
Gral: 3
Winged Spiderlings: 5
Invaders: 4
Nazir attempts to give some Spiderlings the ability to spit acid, but the Weaver seems to have made some kind of error while tweaking their biology. The prospective acid-tribe finds it difficult to produce anything other than chemical fumes, no matter how many times they try to spit something more corrosive.
Meanwhile, Gral takes advantage of the demons' distraction to rescue Kuhaku, who seems oddly lethargic given that they were just surrounded by a swarm of murderous sand-creatures. Nonetheless, the Mirror allows themselves to be lifted to safety up on the great web, where they hover next to Dr. Bob and Nazir.
The Contractor's next order of business is to glide down to the nest. The winged Spiderlings are already battling for control of their star, holding the line against a vast swarm of enemies that are descending on them from above. They have a unique advantage, since they can glide back to the web after being thrown off, but their opponents threaten to overwhelm them through sheer force of numbers. Gral's servants are winning, for now, but the tide could turn at any moment.
Gral begins to do just that, by snatching up enemy Spiderlings and tossing them off the web, but they've barely even begun before Nazir decides to intervene. The great spider wraps a string of webbing around one of Gral's wings, making it impossible for the vulture to maneuver.
Ira looks at her children, dead before they even had a chance at life, and unleashes a great howl. Ira's great maw expands, revealing an innumerable amount of jagged teeth.
"The Sands will soon know the pain of losing it's children."
Ira attempts to devour the many of the sand demons
(I'm probably going to die)
2v3Ira charges at the demons, prepared to die so that it can avenge its stillborn offspring. It collides with a horde, and their battle becomes a flurry of jaws and sharp edges. Ira swallows one demon in a single bite, but the rest of the horde advances on it, raking its side with their serrated claws.
The World-Eater recoils, screaming in pain, and the demons sense weakness. They scramble closer, but something changes as they approach Ira. Ripples pass across the sand, moving from one infinite horizon to the other, and each monster freezes mid-step. They shudder, and the pack turns on itself with the same bloodlust it displayed while hunting. Black ichor flies in every direction as demons commit suicide or slaughter each other.
"And so, my work begins"
Turn the sand below me turn to black goo, and have this black goo spread and consume more sand as it grows
4AJAMA begins their opus by altering the sand. The grains underneath them meld, much as they did while the Demiurge was creating their body, and congeal into thick black sludge. AJAMA modifies this ooze further, until it is a kind of seed that can grow by consuming the sands. The transformation continues, culminating in the creation of a substance that resembles the primordial's own body. It spreads across the desert like a tumor, turning useless sand into the foundations of a new world.
Build a pair of glass wings not to fly but to glide.
3Gyaweft uses a stream of fire to melt the sand and create another chunk of glass. He lifts it and moves it inside, where he can work without being disturbed by the sand's wild fluctuations.
This is detail work, much more delicate than the raw force Gyaweft just used to craft his tower. The wings must be durable, to withstand the stresses of flight, and strong enough to support their passenger's weight. Most importantly, the wings must be shaped well, or they will fall instead of catching the air. The Smelter contemplates these qualities and sets to work. He chisels away at the glass with his bare hands, shattering and breaking it until a pair of feathered wings are all that remain.
The wings are beautifully carved, but each has the fragility of, well, glass. They can support Gyaweft's weight without breaking, but it is a close thing. He suspects that they would shatter easily in a collision, or even in a turbulent storm.
"Thank you for saving me from the sand demons, I think I might just stay up here away from the sand for a bit."
Try to make a weapon out of the rope I used to get up here, so I can fight the demons if they get close.
5Dr. Bob tries to turn the rope into a weapon. He turns the braided silk around, coils it, knots it, and even tries picking apart one of the ends, but nothing seems to work. Webbing is too soft to hold an edge, too light to be used as a bludgeoning implement, and too sticky to make a good whip or garrote. The only redeeming characteristic is its sturdiness, which is on par with good steel.
So instead of a sword or a hammer, Dr. Bob decides to create a net. First he disassembles the rope, unwrapping each of the strands Nazir originally used to construct it. He lays these out in a grid shape, then knots them together to form a kind of artificial web. It's sticky, highly durable, and easy for a humanoid to manipulate, if not quite as natural as a spider's own webbing.
Gyaweft, the Smelter
-Star-smith.
-Master of the Tower.
-Fragile glass wings.
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Dr. Bob, the Unmoved Mover
-Enemy of the sands.
-Spidersilk net.
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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
-Wounded flank.
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Gral, the Contractor
-Contract: Winged Spiderlings.
-Hindered by silk.
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AJAMA, the Demiurge
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Hynsyr, the Titan
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The Empty
-Devoured by the sands.
-Destabilized.
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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.
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.
Nazir's Web: A giant web that begins in the desert and reaches up towards the stars.
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: A group of defeated Spiderlings that made a deal with Gral. They received wings in exchange for service. They have a contested nest on one of the new stars.
--Aetherweavers: A small number of Spiderlings who can perform magic by spinning aetheric webs. Nazir taught them the basics of their craft, allowing them to create simple wards against evil.
Shifting Bog: A large pool of mud drawn from the sand by Kuhaku. Islands rapidly form and dissolve as the sand beneath it moves.
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 spreading patch of black goo created by AJAMA. It can grow by absorbing sand.
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Topic: Sand & Souls - Let There Be Turns (Read 57046 times)