SAND IN THE GLASS ※ EVENT ※ TDM※ 2

[wildestmods]

SAND IN THE GLASS

The group's journey across the sands is fortunately one that's guided. The small desert they're in has mountains off to either side to guide them. They just have to traverse the desert valley until they reach the end.

The sun is bad but not completely unbearable. The heat is intense, but not enough to make them collapse instantly. A dry wind occasionally blows and while it's hot, it at least causes any sweat to instantly evaporate off.

But dry heat is still heat. And they still have to traverse the valleys between dunes and occasionally struggle over them if there are no dips to pick their way through. The mountains to the sides are tall and seem to have very few valleys, and their enemies are far off behind them.

The only way through is forward.

The intel from the letter they found is correct. It's only a day's journey to the ruins that were spoken of. It's evening when they arrive. A large, deep, deep well is one of the first things they find, just before the city. It still has water, clean and clear.

Beyond it...

AGRABAH

The ruins of a once-flourishing kingdom lay before them. The domes of the palace are cracked and one seems to have fallen, crushing part of the city - but there is no trail of damage. It didn't roll, it was somehow thrown by something massive.

The city has furrows of destruction and debris blocking certain streets and paths. It looks as if something tried to block certain paths and carved out other straight paths that led right to the palace. Claw marks and blade marks are visible in the debris clusters, like something tried to claw through it. Half-buried in those areas are the crushed and rotting remains of armored monsters - orcs.

The open paths have the discarded objects one might expect of evacuating people - dropped belongings, discarded bags of grain, lost sandals, children's toys. It looks almost like something blocked the monsters and created straight paths for people.

Or perhaps it's not a something but rather a someone. Right near the area they walk in, there's a massive handprint in the debris and dirt, large enough to stand in. And near the beginning of the paths to the palace there are massive finger holes dug into the dirt, like that same hand clawed those paths clear.

Whatever happened here, the city is now silent. The enemies that were here are gone and so are the kingdom's people. And it looks, from some of the belongings left behind - like children's toys that clearly look like trolls - that the trolls of Trollmarket followed in the footsteps of the kingdom's residents, through their evacuation routes.

It's safe for a moment, long enough for the group to hydrate, rest, and recover. There are even some supplies to be scavenged from the wreckage. Crude weapons they can steal from the dead orc bodies, small bags of grain, even bags of spices.

The light of the moon and stars is enough to move around with, due to the lightness of the sand and buildings. It seems to light the ruins up with its own glow. Due to the cracks in the walls and roofs of the remaining buildings, there's even some light that reaches inside them.

They'll need it because of the darkness that's due to descend.

NEW PLAYERS/CHARACTERS
Test drive memes in Wilderlands are full game events that are open to new players and characters. This means that current players can also top-level in them. Current characters will be able to sense that a new person is bound by the quest magic (so they'll know they're not an enemy) and know instinctually that they're new to the group.

Since the group already knows that new people can and do show up, they can reach out to the new character during the event to help them. There are also downtime prompts so people can intro during a quieter moment.

USEFUL LINKS


Premise/Short Facts | Arrival/Welcome | Setting Background/FAQ | Major NPCs


SHADOWHUNTERS

The Shadowhunters attack first, some of them firing arrows at the group to separate and herd them. The only words the squad hears at the beginning is a deep voice saying, "You know what to do."

The Shadowhunters are disciplined warriors. Each has an enchanted weapon of some kind, empowered to have minor advantages in ways similar to the group's blessed weapons, or magical runes for these advantages are already tattooed onto their bodies. Some can run faster than normal humans, up to 40 MPH, some have increased accuracy with their arrows and seem to never miss. Some heal much faster than normal, glowing healing runes activating anytime they're hurt. They fight with any weapons other than guns - whips, bows and arrows, swords, large knives, etc.

Their teamwork, however, seems to have its limits. While the Shadowhunters are all skilled, many of them were solo hunters, or only worked in small groups. They outnumber the squad but their teamwork isn't as impeccable as their skill with their weapons.

Nets

While they're extremely willing to injure the squad they seem to be trying to capture most of them instead of killing them, occasionally tossing out nets of glowing silver. Being caught in the nets renders someone paralyzed and weak, a deep cold settling into their bones. Some may even hear the shrieks of dying loved ones, whether they've actually died in reality or not. When someone particularly large is captured, the Shadowhunters work together to drag them in the net.

The nets are difficult to destroy, but can be with great force of some kind. It has to be aimed at the part closest to the Shadowhunters' hands, because the force required to break the nets would also injure those trapped inside them. The cold and paralysis fades when the victims are free, but some of the rescued may feel weak and need help staying on their feet. Unfortunately, even when they're broken, the nets of moonlight seem to be something they can recreate within several minutes, drawing them from runes on their arms.

Flying Monkeys

Exactly what it says on the tin. Chimp-sized flying screeching monkeys in dapper little hats and vests help the Shadowhunters by grabbing and carrying people towards them or their nets, herding them, or attacking and grappling with people to make them more vulnerable.

Orders

The Shadowhunters are dogged, and seem to have very clear orders: they're trying to capture people the way the Sisters did. They seem to have different sensibilities on how they do it with different types of people. They can automatically sense what kind of person someone is.

• Mundane humans or PCs with blessed weapons get the kid gloves, with the Shadowhunters telling them, "I know you don't understand, but we need you. There's a war, innocent people are dying. We need normal humans to join our cause." They'll still go in for the capture, but only with as much force is necessary.
• Nonhumans like aliens or metahumans with superpowers (who aren't mages, fae, vampires, or werewolves) get a slightly more brutal beatdown. Though sometimes the less disciplined Shadowhunters (since some are young or new) might coo over the cuter squad members (cute furry ones, short ones, etc) in a dehumanizing way, like they should be pets.
• Classic supernatural creatures like vampires and werewolves, fae, and most mages (with the exception of Necromancers) get sneers and particularly brutal attacks before attempted capture. They're not averse to putting them in traction before carting them away.
• Those that have unholy inclinations, like wielders of Cursed Weapons, Necromancers, and demons, they try to kill these people on sight, often using their seraph blades, holy weapons that can burn with a holy fire. Just a nick from these weapons causes a serious searing wound, and a full on stab anywhere on the body is instantly fatal. Any survivable wounds will automatically get a holy infection resistant to any external forms of healing other than the body's, though this is survivable if they're small.
• Actual Biblical angels will have the Shadowhunters straight up bow down before them and refuse to lay a hand on them - because they have oaths beyond that of the Unfinished Princess.

NAZGUL

Shortly after the Shadowhunters attack, a cold dread fills the city. A darkness sweeps through its streets, even though there's no change in the moonlight. The sky seems colder and the stars seem much farther away. A knee-deep fog seems to roll in from nowhere and cover the ground.

A piercing chill fills the air and a quaking dread rolls through the streets and alleys in waves. Regardless of who an individual is or what they've faced in life, regardless of powers or telepathic blocks, the dread and terror is a magical force of nature. Even those who never feel such fear will feel it now.

The Shadowhunters feel it too. There is a thin, anxious cry of "Nazgul!"

Dark cloaked and hooded shapes now move through the city streets, and something terrible happens: they multiply. Nine shapes enter, and as they stalk through the streets, they split into even more shapes. 9 becomes 18, 18 becomes 27. Each of the Nazgul is able to prism into 3 Nazgul total, linked as one mind, able to spread through the city and attack separate enemies.

They start slaying Shadowhunters immediately, creating chaos as the Shadowhunters attack back while still trying to complete their mission of kidnapping. There is mass chaos. Flaming arrows and flaming swords start lighting canopies and stands of cloth rugs on fire - at least enough to show the Nazgul are not particularly fond of it.

"Use a scatter rune, throw them off balance!"

A rune is activated, but the person that activated it is stabbed from behind right when they do, causing the spell to misfire, and instead of throwing just the Nazgul off balance, everyone is scattered through the streets. The Nazgul are not a terrifying united front now, but the squad and Shadowhunters are scattered as well. And though the spell will eventually burn out, it keeps firing off for a time, causing people to be teleported around. The only way to stop the effect is keep trying to move out of its range, deeper into the city, towards the palace.

Not an easy feat while the looming shapes of Nazgul stalk the streets and carved out evacuation paths, moving like ink.

Nazgul Effects

• Terror. Regardless of how big and bad a member of the squad is, regardless of whether or not they can usually block psionic influence, every character will feel stomach-churning, "what the fuck is this??" fear in the presence of Nazgul, though it depends on them how they work through it. They're not just ghouls or ghosts, they have the power of basically a world's version of Satan (or at least Satan's apprentice) working through them. While they don't cause flashbacks like the Nightrenders, they give off an unblockable aura of cold, monstrous, terrifyingly pure evil
• Morgul-blades. Their normal swords just work like normal swords but the Nazgul also have long blades they stab people with that have a shard of the blade fall off into the wound. This shard slowly works its way to the heart of the victim and eventually turns them to a wraith like them, forever subsumed to the control of the Dark Lord. While healing powers will be able to help somewhat with these wounds and slow the progress of the shard, they won't cure it or push the shard out of the body. Even those with surgical skills will find it impossible to pull a shard out - it'll always slip away from things like forceps. They'll have to reach Rivendell in time and get healing from the Elves to remove the shards.
• Black breath. If they can get in close - and especially if they can touch someone, the Nazgul can inflict a serious and eventually fatal condition, an infection from their aura. If they don't knock the person out instantly, they'll gradually lose consciousness and have a coma state filled with terrible nightmares. Then they'll eventually die. Players can decide how long it takes for their character to be affected, whether they go unconscious instantly and have to be carried, or last long enough to reach the woods beyond the palace. These characters won't have to wait for Rivendell to heal, a certain plant in the woods past the palace can be used to draw them out of their comas and cure it.

PROMPTS

a) HOTTER THAN HOT
The desert is not infinite but it is unforgiving. A day's journey is still a day's journey and because the Nightrenders will become active when the sun sets, you can't wait to travel by night. You have to hope that the information the group got about the length of the crossing will make up for the fact you have to trudge across it under the ruthless light of the sun - and hope that your water supplies will hold out.

It's a journey that will be difficult to make if you don't support each other, share water and food, help the weaker members keep moving - or even carry those who wind up collapsing of exhaustion and dehydration. It'll take a group effort to get everyone to the end.

If you're new, you'll have an even worse time, thrown in to the ravages of the desert with no warning. The caravan of oddball strangers you're drawn to may be your only salvation.

b) WHEN THE WIND'S FROM THE EAST
The desert gets especially bad when that big dust storm rolls through, whoops. You'll all have to hunker down, take what shelter you can in the rocks, and hold onto each other. And help dig out the smaller members after the storm to keep them from being buried alive.

And then there's the first aid after, like helping get sand of each other's eyes and tending to scratched corneas and sandblasted skin abrasions.

c) 'NEATH ARABIAN MOONS
Rejoice! You've arrived! And the well water right before the ruins is still pure, unspoiled, and abundant. There are also some supplies that can still be scavenged from the abandoned market. Fresh fruit and vegetables are right out because they've definitely been rotting at least a few days, but there are bags of rice and bulgur wheat grain, and some of the more nonperishable foods were left covered or in tightly sealed barrels, like dried dates, nuts, pickled turnips, and olives. You have some time to collapse and drink your weight in water, rest, replenish, and scavenge from the marketplace in the fading evening sun and the light of the rising moon. The empty marketplaces also leave room for cooking fires and some of the surrounding buildings have cooking oil and the right cookware to grind grain and make things like flatbreads.

d) A FOOL OFF HIS GUARD
Of course your period of rest is interrupted by another attack. Pretty typical by now, right? The Shadowhunters at least aren't as coordinated as they could be, but they are effective in their different squads. However, while they have subtle advantages in stretch, speed, agility, and accuracy from their angelic runes, they can't quite match the raw power of some of the squad.

Especially if you stand together.

So whether it's fighting Shadowhunters, swatting at their flying monkeys, freeing each other from nets, or protecting the group's more demonically-inclined from very fatal seraph blades, your best bet at everyone getting away is by trying not to do it alone.

e) COULD FALL AND FALL HARD
The dark shapes of the Nazgul are good at clinging to the shadows but the light of the stars and moon seem to be working extra hard at causing their movement to be seen, almost as if there is something holy to them that's watching over the group. The Nazgul don't speak, their gliding movement just push them inexorably after their prey. They don't seem to be trying to capture them. Just like the Nightrenders the group has dealt with in the past, they mostly go in for the kill.

The only exception is the times they draw one of their shorter Morgul-blades. Those wounds don't have to be fatal - any wound anywhere on the body will cause someone to succumb to becoming a wraith in time, forcing them to join them in the cold clutches of the Dark Lord, trapped into obedience to him forevermore.

One advantage you have is that the Nazgul aren't particularly acrobatic as keeping a solid form is its own challenge to them. You can take to higher ground to move safely, run through broken down walls, climb up to roofs, and/or jump across to other buildings. You may have to also make quick escapes, taking advantage of holes in floors that lead to stores of soft grain, scaffolding, ladders, ropes, or soft, bouncy canopies over shops that can act as trampolines.

Sometimes the only way to get away from the danger is by staying one jump ahead of the hitmen, one trick ahead of disaster, and one skip ahead of your doom.

f) WILDCARD
Maybe you decide to do none of the above. Or want to play out something like your character getting another to safety away from the battle. Go nuts!

OOC DETAILS
❧ Quest magic: Players can handwave that the quest bond magic is tugging the group together, and towards the palace and the lands beyond.

❧ Archivist Spells: There will be little eddies of leftover genie magic that allow Archivists to bank 4 iterations of a Sandstorm spell during downtime before the attack. This spell allows for a localized mini-tornado that can sandblast 1 enemy. Alongside disorienting and distracting them, the tornado's winds are strong enough to damage corneas and cause some abrasions.

❧ Teleportation: The flawed scatter spell one of the Shadowhunters activated with an angel rune can explain why two characters that might otherwise stay together through the whole thing might get separated. They'll blink around a few times before they can make their way out of range of the spell zone.

❧ Network: The network can be used by current players. Mirrors can and do float, and can follow someone as they move, allowing people to communicate while running or fighting. Feel free to use the network in parallel with the log events. Prospective players can handwave not using the mirrors because they haven't kicked on yet and it takes some time to figure out how they work, like magical Zoom calls.

❧ NPCing: The mods won't be npcing but players are free to npc the actions of the Shadowhunters, flying monkeys, and the Nazgul. The flying monkeys won't speak. The Shadowhunters can be npced as speaking, as long as it's kept to the listed rules for how they treat each type of person. They won't reveal any information other than they're kidnapping them to take them to the Unfinished Princess to fight in some kind of war, and are less likely to share this info the more inhuman a character is. he Nazgul, on the other hand, will never speak.

❧ Enemy damage: Players can have their characters successfully kill Shadowhunters if they would do so. They're a bit tougher than normal humans, but not by much. The Nazgul, however, can't be killed, though they can be routed off by holy attacks, fire, or powers players have gotten approved as being able to hurt unholy or ethereal beings. If you have a question about whether/how something will affect either enemy, feel free to ask the mods in the first comment below.

❧ Environment: Feel free to manipulate the environment. There are lots of buildings close together with scaffoldings, ladders, ropes, piles of barrels, just about everything you would want if you were either Jackie Chan fighting bad guys while holding a baby, or trying to PARKOUR! The orc corpses provide options for necromancy if Necromancers have powers to animate the date, and also crude weapons that can be scavenged for use.

❧ Experimentation: We'd like to encourage people to experiment! Obviously ask other players if they're down first, but it could be fun to do something other than 2 person threads, like maybe 2 PCs banding to rescuing a 3rd. Players are also encouraged to set limitations if they think it'd be more interesting, like locking their final escape prompt through the palace to the other side to a single thread partner and playing out the drama of a full escape.

Comments

[credit_not_blame]

"Did you take a look at the appliances in the kitchens?" Stacia asks, rising to her feet and trying to fold her wrap into a sling to carry her precious cargo hands-free. It's...not working very well. "I can make coffee over a fire, but we're not carting a tiny stove around with us. Way too heavy."

[liesdontfindyou]

"I haven't, I've mostly been focusing on what we can carry. I imagine we'd be able to find a stove to use here, but for the road... yeah, I guess we should focus on pots we can use over any fire." How much of a pain in the ass it is to not have access to even modern camping amenities has long since settled in, but that makes it no less of a pain. "You need a hand with that? More material or a bag it'll fit in?"

When they were preparing to leave the camp, she mostly focused on helping with organisation and she's wearing more than one bag filled with various things. She's stronger than she looks and has been trying to do her fair bit, for all that her ingrained solitary habits and avoidance of Price have kept her from really integrating.

[credit_not_blame]

"A bag or something would probably be a good idea," Stacia admits. "I still want to carry it though. Not that I don't trust you, I'm just really excited about coffee and I'm going to want to keep sniffing it."

[liesdontfindyou]

CT chuckles, "Totally understandable. I think I've got a bag that'll fit in..."

She rummages around what she's carrying and does manage to produce something that should fit the bill, handing it over to Stacia so she can get herself sorted to carry and sniff the coffee however much she pleases. She'll wait for her to do so before even half-stepping away to look for what they need otherwise.

"Price still hasn't approached me again since the first night at the Heartstone, you know. Either something about your offer is working as a forcefield on its own," she's joking, mostly, unless he heard their early exchange on the mirrors, "or he's just... chickened out anyway. For now, at least."

[credit_not_blame]

Stacia makes sure the coffee is secure in its new bag before she looks back up at CT.

"I'm happy to take credit for keeping him away, even if I didn't do anything," she jokes back with a wink. "But while he's a bully and a coward, he's also not a complete idiot. He's got no power base to work from here, and he opening admitted to being a monster to a few of us." She rolls her eyes. "You'd think a manipulative little weasel like him would know how to fake an apology in a way that doesn't universally horrify everyone who hears it."

[liesdontfindyou]

"He didn't even take the hint of me nearly stabbing him at first, but maybe it—" And then she processes the rest of what Stacia said and she blinks, stopping walking where she had actually started to move so they could look around. "Wait, he did what?"

She's not actually sure how she thought Stacia found out about Price's behaviour, besides possibly learning it from the others themselves, but she wouldn't have ever put money on what it sounds like she's describing.

[credit_not_blame]

"Oh, right, I should have said," Stacia says. "When he first showed up on the Rig, he made a big public apology to the Freelancers, trying to get out ahead of whatever they were going to tell us about him. But given how much of it was him trying to claim none of what he did was his fault, nobody was buying. I think he made it worse for himself, all things considered." She smirks. "And then the Freelancers chimed in."

[liesdontfindyou]

CT blinks just, utterly incredulously for a moment, before shaking it off and speaking again. "I... wow. That sounds like him, the attempt at manipulation beneath it all and the trying to act like none of it was his fault, but I've never known him to make such a drastic miscalculation. There were... five, of the others, right? Five voices against one is a weird fight to pick."

Him trying it with just her makes sense, if he couldn't rely on his manipulation to get under the skin of or overrule the word of one of them then he would've been very bad at his job, but that many of them? Including most of the people who knew the most, by the end?

"Sounds rather like he fucked himself." And she'd be lying if she said that isn't kind of satisfying to know.

[credit_not_blame]

"I think it was more desperation than pure calculation," Stacia says. "Five people - seven if you count Delta and Theta, eight if you count the guy willing to vouch for Wash and Carolina - is a lot of people to have set against him. Plus, he was in a situation where the only protection he had against any one of them killing him was that he was considered 'company property'." She grimaces. She really doesn't like talking about the dehumanizing way Jorgmund treated them, even when she's not talking about herself. Yaaay trauma.

"He was looking for someone to have his back, and he didn't have time to get into anyone's head first. So he had to wing it, and he's very bad at winging it." She cracks a smile. "We had a guy there originally from the dawn of humanity; and he likened it to someone announcing that they don't eat people's faces, when no one had in fact accused them of eating people's faces. "Makes you think he's gonna eat some faces"."

[liesdontfindyou]

CT definitely pulls a face at the 'company property' bit. Eugh. She's not sure if a part of her wishes she was on the rig to help everyone take it down, because what the fuck, or if she's just entirely grateful she wasn't there and that everyone got out anyway.

Six months ago the sentence 'we had a guy there originally from the dawn of humanity' would have sounded utterly insane but now she just... accepts it. Such is life exposed to the multiverse.

The 'example' itself makes her laugh. "It— certainly does. Exposing your own tendencies towards emotional manipulation and psychological abuse to a group who has no idea that's your weapon of choice is... it's certainly a choice. Way to cut off his own potential food supply, so to speak. I guess we should be grateful he did that, but wow. Just— wow."

[credit_not_blame]

"Tell me about it," Stacia agrees. "It was a good warning for the rest of us, at least. Speaking of, when we get somewhere safe, I'm going to start taking people aside and warning them about him. I'm not going to use your name or the names of anyone back on the Rig, but people here deserve to know that they should be on their guard around him. If anyone has any further questions, do you want me to let you know? Or should I leave you out entirely?"

[liesdontfindyou]

CT considers that for a moment, fingertips drumming against her own palm. Talking about it in detail is not her favourite thing in the world, but some people are going to have doubts or questions. And people deserve to know who they're living around.

"Yeah. Yeah, let me know. I know more about what he did than anyone—well, except for anything they did after I died, and it's not like I can prove it, here, but if someone wants more information... let me know and I'll decide if I'm up to answering questions."

[credit_not_blame]

"Can do," Stacia says. "I won't give them your name, I'll just give you their names if they ask, along with a quick run-down of what I know about them. And I can even tag along if you think you might want someone to run interference."

It's important that CT knows that Stacia has her back here. That's the only way to at least start to heal some of the damage Price did to her.

[liesdontfindyou]

"That works for me. Having someone running interference when talking to people might help, but either way I'll make sure to talk to anyone I do talk to far, far from wherever Price is holed up."

She's been keeping an eye out for where he spends his time, it's the only way to avoid him consistently and guarantee he overhears as little as possible. She wishes the mirrors didn't automatically broadcast, or she'd probably get more involved in some discussions that spring up, but right now she just doesn't want to put herself out there more than she has to most of the time.

But Stacia having her back definitely helps.

[credit_not_blame]

"Naturally," Stacia agrees. "I prefer not to talk about anything where he can hear me either."

It's just good sense really. Why give him anything but the absolute minimum to work with? She's not the person to try and trick him into playing nice with other people.

[liesdontfindyou]

CT nods. It's for the best, really, giving him as little as is possible. "He's got enough to use against me as it is, the less he hears beyond that, the better."

Her hand brushes briefly against what appears to be a piece of gravel tied into a silver chain she's wearing, but doesn't linger. She inhales, exhales.

"Alright, enough about him for one day. Let's get what we need for that coffee."