It had been a monotone day from the beginning, it felt strikingly isolated. Clouds blocked the sun and sky in an usual way for the desert, which turned it's vibrant hot amber like sands into grey tones. In the darkness the sands were even black. The air itself felt different, like a rainy day without the rain.
It was an omen. That came just as the sun would set, if it was even visible it was setting.
It was the great grey melancholy, and in it's night of dark fate, it twisted over and over the sands. A man shrouded in the cloak of darkness stirred a cruel black fate. As he raised his scepter ushering the 4 winds into a great storm. The sand then rose casting a great shadow. A fog that would roll over and engulf the sky. It was out there now, just in the distance of the horizon. It was unnatural, something dangerous, and it casted a dark mark on the air. You could feel it as it moved, and from the distance you wonder why.
"Just hell" he said.
Looking at it in the distance from the top of a camel the merchant convoy could tell the dust storm was something out of this world. They marvelled before the rolling sands,"!".
"It's like the sky is falling down on us!"
"Have we disrespected the gods?"
"Listen!" A man would interrupt the chorus of confused men.
"The situation is dire. I have seen many in my life but never a sandstorm so collosal, maybe we have incurred the wrath of the gods but even so our only hope is shelter. The city".
He pointed towards the southern star.
"The sun is setting but just near to here is a city." He pulled his map out, "It's our only hope".
"Zahid"
Without any protests they took their only reasonable route. However lagging along the route the feeling of dread was impossible to shake. How could you resist it, from every direction across the horizon you could see it, as large as the tops of mountains. Casting darkness and black sand across the land. The Desert light was painted black, as if a filter had been laid across it.
"Yes. Actually I do fear this may be the end." He muttered.
"What is this city! I have never in my days traded here"
"Zahid, it was a jewel but it's hardly-"
"Fog!" He stopped pointing at the thick clouds of grey that hung between them.
"Where did this come from?"
"Calm down it's just desert fog!"
"Desert fog!? fool can't you see the eye of Ra is blocked by clouds? This must be the evil eye-- A plague!"
The fog grew thicker.
"Are you a man or a mouse! What in the hell do you have to be afraid of, it's been cloudy all day. A current must have rolled from the coast and formed these clouds and fog. Trust me I'm a sailor"
They continued through the fog but it was thicker than your vision could pierce, you could only see a few feet in any direction. Cacti and the sandy dark ground, and the black hellstorm surrounding them.
Nobody spoke for many reasons, fear that the only thing that could be said would destroy their crippled morale. Fear that speaking it would bring it into fruition.
"Look!" He pointed at the thick air above them in the near distance. Just barely visible between the hellish dark environment the pointed rooftop of a building. It was large and seated high in the air painted a burgundy color that stood out like blood against the cool sand. "There, this way we want to get to that building!"
This was their best chance, maybe a slither of hope would come if they could hide. It was the only reasonable thing to do. Shell up, hide from the environment and survive hopefully long enough to say you made it back out.
"Child"
A man's voice speaks from the dark of your consciousness. As you drift through the purgatory of your mind all you can do is hear the deep vibration of a foreign voice. You did not know this man. However you can see him there, in the black of your mind, as if just barely lit beneath a beam of hard light; that cuts through the void of your consciousness. He sits with legs crossed, a shadowy figure--only the sliver of light crossing his jaw was visible. His form otherwise as deep and black as your unconsciousness.
"Are you ready?" He spoke again but between thoughts static and racket muffled his voice. It was a chorus of words and even questions he might ask but someone else seemed to answer for you. Who were they? They seemed to whisper your darkest secrets under the racket of sharp static.
" I need you to answer all of my questions", there was a sound of flipping pages, but you are unable to see exactly what the figure is doing.
"Oh and Introduce yourself too" the voice collided with a sharp static sound in your mind.
"Tell me about the worse days of your life?"
"What are you guilty of and what do you regret?"
"Now come on. What are you afraid of?"
The words echo and loop through your unconscious mind as you drift, and sounds that you have never heard before crash between the questions. He asks you everything about your life, the days you hated, what you loved. Who violated you in your past, and who have you wronged in your lifetime?
It presented you, your past lovers and their naked forms, bleeding in the abyss-- the flickering last moments of life in your mother's eyes. It revealed to you your hate, words you had forgot, and words you could never forgot you spoke. It showed you your lies and disloyalties. It wasn't just questioning, it was studying. Have you seen your family die? How did you react, what look did you have on your face.
"How do you look when you kill people?"
"Who are you, and then who have you been your whole life?"
You drifted through it, a sensation of weightlessness surrounded by a river of your guilts. He had left you there alone in the dark infinite expanse, every moment had felt like countless minutes.
And as you drift through the nightmare for what seems like days you realise, you have reached purgatory. For a moment you feel the sensation of true nothingness within this void. However fleeting it may be, as a golden ladder descends towards your unconnected consciousness. It floats weightlessly until it comes to a stop.
The golden ladder radiated brightly against the darkness of the nightmare. Infinitely reaching up, to a place beyond the void. There it is now a ray of faith, the ladder. It was here! Our blessed hope in a meaningless existence.
There is but silence to greet the golden ladder as it meets the waters you travel through. It is just there, almost within reach. If you could just lift forward in your consciousness and grab the first step. If you might be of strong enough will, like slowly breaking the chains of sleep paralysis you might be free. So take the first step.
Dm notes: You have 48 hrs to post. Your post just begin from the waking state, in this case the "nightmare". Within your first post you must answer all of the voices questions, you may lie but you must still give the true answers to these questions in a spoiler beneath your post. These questions will influence the ending. It is encouraged to reference any specific events that come to mind by linking them in a spoiler beneath your post. This is not required but may greatly enhance the player experience.
After that you may climb the ladder and awake into the desert.
After waking your first objective will be too head towards the "red rooftop", described in pt 1 of this post. You may likely see the city of Zahid in the distance. Simply head towards it. Your characters may wake from any position within the inner Sandstorm. Make sure as to not come in contact with the storm for this round of posting. It may result in death or insanity.
Feel free to gather and speak or move in groups as this is encouraged.
It was an omen. That came just as the sun would set, if it was even visible it was setting.
It was the great grey melancholy, and in it's night of dark fate, it twisted over and over the sands. A man shrouded in the cloak of darkness stirred a cruel black fate. As he raised his scepter ushering the 4 winds into a great storm. The sand then rose casting a great shadow. A fog that would roll over and engulf the sky. It was out there now, just in the distance of the horizon. It was unnatural, something dangerous, and it casted a dark mark on the air. You could feel it as it moved, and from the distance you wonder why.
"Just hell" he said.
Looking at it in the distance from the top of a camel the merchant convoy could tell the dust storm was something out of this world. They marvelled before the rolling sands,"!".
"It's like the sky is falling down on us!"
"Have we disrespected the gods?"
"Listen!" A man would interrupt the chorus of confused men.
"The situation is dire. I have seen many in my life but never a sandstorm so collosal, maybe we have incurred the wrath of the gods but even so our only hope is shelter. The city".
He pointed towards the southern star.
"The sun is setting but just near to here is a city." He pulled his map out, "It's our only hope".
"Zahid"
Without any protests they took their only reasonable route. However lagging along the route the feeling of dread was impossible to shake. How could you resist it, from every direction across the horizon you could see it, as large as the tops of mountains. Casting darkness and black sand across the land. The Desert light was painted black, as if a filter had been laid across it.
"Yes. Actually I do fear this may be the end." He muttered.
"What is this city! I have never in my days traded here"
"Zahid, it was a jewel but it's hardly-"
"Fog!" He stopped pointing at the thick clouds of grey that hung between them.
"Where did this come from?"
"Calm down it's just desert fog!"
"Desert fog!? fool can't you see the eye of Ra is blocked by clouds? This must be the evil eye-- A plague!"
The fog grew thicker.
"Are you a man or a mouse! What in the hell do you have to be afraid of, it's been cloudy all day. A current must have rolled from the coast and formed these clouds and fog. Trust me I'm a sailor"
They continued through the fog but it was thicker than your vision could pierce, you could only see a few feet in any direction. Cacti and the sandy dark ground, and the black hellstorm surrounding them.
Nobody spoke for many reasons, fear that the only thing that could be said would destroy their crippled morale. Fear that speaking it would bring it into fruition.
"Look!" He pointed at the thick air above them in the near distance. Just barely visible between the hellish dark environment the pointed rooftop of a building. It was large and seated high in the air painted a burgundy color that stood out like blood against the cool sand. "There, this way we want to get to that building!"
This was their best chance, maybe a slither of hope would come if they could hide. It was the only reasonable thing to do. Shell up, hide from the environment and survive hopefully long enough to say you made it back out.
"Child"
A man's voice speaks from the dark of your consciousness. As you drift through the purgatory of your mind all you can do is hear the deep vibration of a foreign voice. You did not know this man. However you can see him there, in the black of your mind, as if just barely lit beneath a beam of hard light; that cuts through the void of your consciousness. He sits with legs crossed, a shadowy figure--only the sliver of light crossing his jaw was visible. His form otherwise as deep and black as your unconsciousness.
"Are you ready?" He spoke again but between thoughts static and racket muffled his voice. It was a chorus of words and even questions he might ask but someone else seemed to answer for you. Who were they? They seemed to whisper your darkest secrets under the racket of sharp static.
" I need you to answer all of my questions", there was a sound of flipping pages, but you are unable to see exactly what the figure is doing.
"Oh and Introduce yourself too" the voice collided with a sharp static sound in your mind.
"Tell me about the worse days of your life?"
"What are you guilty of and what do you regret?"
"Now come on. What are you afraid of?"
The words echo and loop through your unconscious mind as you drift, and sounds that you have never heard before crash between the questions. He asks you everything about your life, the days you hated, what you loved. Who violated you in your past, and who have you wronged in your lifetime?
It presented you, your past lovers and their naked forms, bleeding in the abyss-- the flickering last moments of life in your mother's eyes. It revealed to you your hate, words you had forgot, and words you could never forgot you spoke. It showed you your lies and disloyalties. It wasn't just questioning, it was studying. Have you seen your family die? How did you react, what look did you have on your face.
"How do you look when you kill people?"
"Who are you, and then who have you been your whole life?"
You drifted through it, a sensation of weightlessness surrounded by a river of your guilts. He had left you there alone in the dark infinite expanse, every moment had felt like countless minutes.
And as you drift through the nightmare for what seems like days you realise, you have reached purgatory. For a moment you feel the sensation of true nothingness within this void. However fleeting it may be, as a golden ladder descends towards your unconnected consciousness. It floats weightlessly until it comes to a stop.
The golden ladder radiated brightly against the darkness of the nightmare. Infinitely reaching up, to a place beyond the void. There it is now a ray of faith, the ladder. It was here! Our blessed hope in a meaningless existence.
There is but silence to greet the golden ladder as it meets the waters you travel through. It is just there, almost within reach. If you could just lift forward in your consciousness and grab the first step. If you might be of strong enough will, like slowly breaking the chains of sleep paralysis you might be free. So take the first step.
Dm notes: You have 48 hrs to post. Your post just begin from the waking state, in this case the "nightmare". Within your first post you must answer all of the voices questions, you may lie but you must still give the true answers to these questions in a spoiler beneath your post. These questions will influence the ending. It is encouraged to reference any specific events that come to mind by linking them in a spoiler beneath your post. This is not required but may greatly enhance the player experience.
After that you may climb the ladder and awake into the desert.
After waking your first objective will be too head towards the "red rooftop", described in pt 1 of this post. You may likely see the city of Zahid in the distance. Simply head towards it. Your characters may wake from any position within the inner Sandstorm. Make sure as to not come in contact with the storm for this round of posting. It may result in death or insanity.
Feel free to gather and speak or move in groups as this is encouraged.