Player Progression Story Unfortunate And Intriguing Findings

The Faraddi Explorers decided that they had to split up to follow up on the latest rumors. The first of these groups was made up of Aska al-Ali, Fahim Khaleel, Khalid Nazari, Azra min Eazim, Naajy Shamuon, Amir Razavi and Birc al-Ali, who headed to northern Farah’deen to follow up on rumors of a newly unearthed Qadir structure. They landed in Hadravia, an Ailor, Regalian-aligned state with a strange blended Culture of Ceardian Ailor, Songaskian and Qadir values. Naajy was surely fascinated with this new and unmet people, as were likely all the party, but they pressed on past the port city they had landed in for its edges, where they rented Jamals for their trip and acquired all the needed supplies before they began their trek out into the northern region of the Idalbile Desert. This region was a no-man’s land, harsh and relatively barren, yet claimed by the Songaskian Masaya regardless. The group hugged the Juguou Sea for a brief part of their journey, the placid waters holding toxic chemicals they were all aware of. But at last, they turned away from the Sea and followed the path of the rumors to their source. And indeed it was exactly as advertised, a ruin of the Sariyd Empire to be sure, with all the features of one along with the complex and large front door, cracked, but with clockworks exposed in the front. Perhaps it was some sort of vault from over a century ago, but expectations were kept in check by the group as Aska and Fahim stepped up to the plate.

As they tinkered, they heard the odd click and clack from behind the door of the ruin, which most definitely excited them as they stood there. Was it active clockworks? But just then, as the two picking the door lock were almost done, they heard it in the distance...hooves on the sand and rocks. Naajy moved into position ahead of the group, ready to be his convincing and charming self while behind them, the rest of them gripped the Jamals’ bridles and pulled them in closer to the door. Over the hill, they came, wrapped in matching desert robes and riding on horses bred specific for this region of Aloria. At their head rode a female Songaskian, white hair long on her head, along with a set of horns. An armored helm hugged her face but kept these features open, and she was the first to dismount and march right over to the Qadir-shifted Slizzar.

Unfortunately...she spoke in Sofaal first.

“What are you all doing here? You need to leave, immediately!”

Naajy cleared his throat and replied in Common to her, beginning a lengthy reply to them even as, aha, the ruin’s door opened!

"...what might you be doing in this desert here yourself?” he was just finishing off, beaming at her.

“Protecting this whole land!” she shouted back in Common after a moment’s pause, unable to fully shake off his pretty face and oh so beautiful body, all the shimmering. “...we-we’re here to protect this whole land, you all need to leave!”

Meanwhile, the door had slid open fully to the darkness of a hallway. At the end, a flash of silver, glinting dully in the dark! Eagerly, Amir held his light forward, thinking he’d find clockwork...and immediately wished he hadn’t.

It was a massive ant, even larger than a dog, four feet tall and some five or so feet long. Its giant antenna were wiggling at the wall before it as its mandibles snapped...the clicking noise and awful lot like clockwork machinery. But the woosh of air from the door sliding open and then the light shining on it caused it to turn its head toward the opening. There was no screech or chitter, just one or two mandible clacks as the massive insect headed for this new opening, sensing sustenance for its massive form the closer it got to the opening and so increasing in speed.

“Close it..close it...CLOSE IT!!” Amir ended up screaming to the two locksmiths who immediately gave a twist on some knob or component of the open doors slide to the side locking mechanism. Thus, just as it was lunging out, the creature was suddenly and brutally crushed. Now this produced a horrific sound, like the cracking of a crab shell as the Qadir doors desperately and slowly broke through the creature’s practically metal chitin covering while it itself was yelling out a shrill and awful noise as it was slowly crushed to death. Its antennae twitched, its limbs spasmed and its black eyes stared into the souls of the likely horrified Qadir party. And then with a sudden, firm, boom, the doors completed their task. The severed top half of the ant fell to the sand as it’s body curled up in rigor mortis, a vile green-black goo serving to show the cutoff-point between it and the rest of its body.

Meanwhile, the Songaskian party, now all dismounted, watched at a distance with Naajy.

“Dragons save us…” the woman whispered before she started barking orders to her troops, the party of ten or so men filing down at Amir and all the others.

“Whoa, hey, it’s dea-” Naajy tried to calm her down, recovering himself rather quickly. He’d always known about giant bugs, hell, Hadar Wasps were no joke, but he found himself violently shrugged off of his attempt to make a comforting gesture...also his attempt to surge her.

“Sand Ants NEVER travel alone!” she said angrily, and then Naajy turned toward his party...oh boy.

Meanwhile, the group, as a whole, was slowly recovering. Was it mechanical? It was certainly shiny enough to maybe be a machine. One of them, Azra, leaned down to check to make absolutely sure. It was most certainly not, and instead, it was clearly an organic creature. In her examination, she noticed a nicely-sized piece of chitin, about the size of a small plate, which had shattered off relatively ungooey. She picked it up, reasoning with herself as to why not to take a closer look…

Then the group noticed the Songaskians trooping down toward them, two drawing whips while another two were taking out swords. Back up on the hill, they could see Naajy’s emphatic waving, but his shouts weren’t reaching them. Up here? Yes, they could see a Songaskian up there with him, a bit late for that warning...but then they all began to feel it. The rumble. The Jamals anxiously stirred in their owner’s hands.

It was low at first, as Amir and some of the others turned themselves to face the oncoming Songaskians. But soon, they could feel it in the ground, and they turned toward the door which after such an intense and rapid closing shut had slooowly begun to ease open, loose on their tracks. The four-way seal continued to slide open, and it was then that the symphony of chittering reached them, echoing out from the dark halls within…

“Run!!” cried out one of the Songaskians, and the Qadir abruptly realized that the weapons were not for them. For once in their lives, they rushed toward Songaskians, two of them (Fahim Khaleel and Khalid Nazari) even mounting onto their shared Jamal and legging it slightly faster to the approaching safety.

From up on the hill, Naajy saw them. Perhaps a dozen other ants came ripping out of the ruined doorway, one ant possessing wings while the rest were fervent in their pursuit of these intruders and killers. Back at the entrance, more timid and less intense Sand Ants were in the process of collecting their dead comrade, dragging the corpse back into their tunnels. The winged Sand Ant had yet to spread its wings, but it never got a chance as a sharp whip from one of the Songaskians probably tore right through the membrane much to the animal’s pain. What followed was a whirl of a melee, the Songaskian leader leaving his side to charge down into the fight, her head aflame as she suddenly sent out a pump of air, scattering some of the other warriors Sand Ants back. Then, as her men all fought around her, the Explorers might have noted her long pause in action before she plunged her arm deep into the sand. Sand arms erupted from the ground, pounding at, grabbing and throwing, or smacking the Sand Ants, and they were soon in retreat.

Both parties wordlessly rode off at quick speeds, reaching the shore of the Jougou Sea before anyone stopped. She then demanded what they were doing here, and the group felt they owed her some level of explanation given that she had just saved them, with three of her men clearly bloodied and injured from the effort. After hearing their words, she then revealed herself to be an officer of the Saruhannan Army, and that she’d been sent to investigate the region due to reported sightings of Sand Ants. The creature had been confined to Saruhanna for decades, hence it’s full name (Saruhanna Sand Ant), but there were worrying reports that the species was extending out their tunnels. Sadly, it seems that one was now connected to the Qadir ruin, which she had pinpointed as a likely entrance and area to be sealed off. Unfortunately, it would take a few days for the creatures to calm down. She had no kinds words to see them off, only a stiff gesture to the crown of her head and a brief line in Sofaal some of the party might known to have been the Songaskian statement “Praise the Eternal Light.” So, tired from their brush with death and likely trying to forget watching a massive insect get crushed in half right in front of most of them, the Qadir party headed back to Hadravia on their similarly tired Jamals.

Their trip wasn’t a total waste though, as before heading back, all got some time to relax until their ship arrived. They traveled the markets of the coastal city and spoke to some local Qadir, perhaps even acquiring the odd simple clockwork part or two for the courtesy of warning others not to pursue the ruins themselves.

Meanwhile, the second group of Korra Hakim, Aaminah Zaman, Kamaria Ahmed, Aamir Ahmadi, and Merilya Jouhari were much further south, down to the coastline of Al-Alus...or the Masaya, they were so close together it was impossible to really tell, especially given the remote nature of the region. After arriving nearby and spending the night in town, they paid a fisherman to lend them his boat for a day or two, and they soon found themselves proceeding to the ruined ships with all their diving equipment. The shore was, obviously, dry when they got there. Some of the wooden timbers emerged out of the water, like some sort of dead ribcage, and at least one ship was completely on the rocky coastline itself, like a proper shattered skeleton. But still, the majority of the wrecks were underwater, and so they began.

The process lasted for several hours, up and down, through and around, with line tugs and gasps for air. The rocky shoals proved to be lacking in most forms of life, save some slow sea slugs, starfish and some corals. By the latter part of the afternoon, they had a very nice haul and also a good grasp of the information they had been sent out to collect. There were six boats in total, one firmly on the beach, two with remains poking out of the water and the other three entirely submerged. Most of them had lost their hulls years ago, though the two deepest down had not such wrecks. It also seemed clear that the ships had been burned, as, despite all of the water, black scorch marks clear in some of the wood deeper down. The design of the vessels was also somewhat general, they weren’t exactly Qadir but rather seemed to show a blend of influences, at least from what they could tell. It also seemed that these vessels were diverse in their cargos as, by the end of the day, they had collected an odd assortment of items:

• Two Elven amphoras, one broken open at the top but still a nice design of green vines on a white background while the other was still sealed tight and fully intact with the same pattern.
• A handful of old Regals, with outdated imagery of storks rather than Blue Crown Dragons.
• A spearhead, along with about a foot of the pole it was once attached to. The design seemed minimalist on the metal, though the pole showed some designs that years in water had not helped maintain intact.
• A broken piece of Qadir navigational equipment, waterlogged and somewhat crude in original design as well.
• The final, and largest piece, was another Elven artifact. Instead of being an amphora though, it was a statuette a foot and a half tall depicting an Elven man with a large beard, along with symbols of the arts and artisanry around him. It was made of pale stone and set with golden embellishments, half tarnished due to their time spend underwater, but it would surely be of great interest to any Altalar back in Regalia.

Thus, the group called it a day and dragged their boat up onto the rocky beach to consume a late lunch. As they all sat there though, they began to notice something rather odd. There were stones and patterns in the rocks around them and eventually, the whole group stood up and blew away some the pale sand to indeed reveal stonework, albeit cracked and lacking any discernible features. In fact, the rocky coastline was at least in part, a ruined jetty, carved from the surrounding rock but clearly long abandoned. They also found that the stones continued off over the dunes, even nearlyt rushing after them, however stopping themselves before making the journey. They were ladened by their underwater finds, and also not at all equipped to go after some stone path through the dunes of the Farah’deen desert. So they ultimately noted down which direction the stones seemed to go in, before getting back into their boat and returning to the fishing village for a night of rest and a return to Regalia the next morning, to tell their fellow Qadir of what they’d found.