With a shout throughout the air,
delivered at the doorway,
"Please, just one more cup we'll share?"
As the travellers prepare,
its the exact phrase they say
with a shout throughout the air.
The beggar does too declare
in his drought and his dismay
"Please just one more cup we'll share?"
Celebrants may loudly blare
the same at the break of day,
with a shout throughout the air.
Mothers, gripped by their despair,
hold sons, fated for the fray,
"Please... just one more cup we'll share..."
We too say this fool's prayer
to try and hold Fate at bay
with a shout throughout the air:
"Please just one more cup we'll share?"
- transcribed from a strange visitor to the flats
Where water is precious, the sharing of a cup is a simple but powerful act. A drop of unity, mercy, and kindness in a world that can be parched of it. Come! Sit! Sip of my cup! Be merry and share stories of...
d20 Encounters in the Salt Flats
- Šuqurtum: A woman, fiddling with the criss-cross of flags travellers follow from one shelter to the next in their journeys. She is clearly directing them toward an old half-buried wagon thats been set up as a stall. She is garbed in faded rose-colored veils, with distinctively scratched-up rose-tinted goggles. Her wares are as sketchy as she is.
- Jarred squeezings from used Hopeberry bandages. Totally more medicinal this way...
- Fruit of the sacred grove- instantly nourishing. (Actually dyed clusters of crust crab eggs, which are ready to burst into a million tiny skittering babies as soon as it would be inconvenient).
- Genuine magic totem. (Its just a salt-desiccated corpse; granted one that has somehow shrunken down to about 8" tall, but not magic).
- A cage full of hyjerboa (see Encounter 6; no other catches)
- One-use weapon oil- you only need to use it to protect metal weapons once! (Good for about 1d6 hours, after which mundane wood and metal disintegrate.)
- A sack full of black peppercorns (Actually high quality! But stolen.)
- Abandoned haven: Entombed in salt. The ground beneath it appears to have given way in places, causing structures to tilt at weird angles. In theory some small pools of brackish water might be here in a pinch, but every surface is coated with jagged sharp crystals that look almost as if they were sprayed on.
- Perez and Zerah: They are identical twin brothers, dressed in fine blue and red clothes respectively. Each occupies a deep trench, facing opposite one another. Together the brothers inherited a vast fortune, which is hidden somewhere nearby. Neither can claim it though due to their paranoia about being betrayed by their brother. Both brothers are promising a share of their fortune to whomever can kill their brother for them.
- Neruptah: Decadent sadist sorcerer, walking around the flats wearing nothing but caked entrails and encrusted salt. If he can directly touch your exposed flesh (which is hard given the typical kit needed for the salt), you will begin to drown in your own bodily fluids (which can only be sorted either via a trained healer, or a risky impromptu lancing to relieve the surface tension of the bubble inside the throat).
- Nabu: You'll hear him before you see him, as he is wearing numerous hollow lacquered waterbulbs stuck to his body like suckers. They clunk together as he wanders around. He is a diminutive and soft-spoken man, belying his true wanton depravity. He subjects himself to dehydration-induced hallucinations in order to divine hidden auspicious signs for the construction of temples or divining of water, or just to revel in the pleasurable hallucinations.
like human centipede three together, and remove the eyes/ears - Hyjerboa: Hyjerboa sort of look like long, six-legged jerboa. Their kidneys are hyper efficient, such that they rarely urinate and when they do its basically a few granules of dust. They are extremely dangerous pests as this dust instantly taints any water it comes in contact with; entire pools of water downwind become uretic. They barely have any meat on them, and offer no nutrition even if you could eat a bunch of them.
- Nāṣir: A rubbery, tanned, shrivelled little man, sitting half-naked on a hammock stretched between two mangrove trees and concealed underneath a silken net to protect from the sun and the salt. He carries a large, hollow, rusty poker which he uses to point and scratch his back with. He will do everything he can to have people approach him.
- The trees are actually Creeping Mangrels, which will attack anyone nearby. Once they take something down, Nāṣir will use his poker like a straw and slurp up their fluids alongside his Mangrels- which is how he survives.
- Nāṣir controls the Mangrels through carefully flicking leftover fluids around to bait them, or poking them with his poker. Mostly poking.
- If he ever descends from his spot, the Mangrels attack him immediately.
- If he is forced into the sunlight, he will catch fire immediately.
- Qudāšu: A woman dressed in black that has been bleached by the sun and the salt. She is revered for her commitment to her late father, as she has been using Refresh to keep the last meal her father cooked for her fresh for a few decades at this point. She desperately holds onto memories of him, only nibbling on crumbs from the meal occasionally.
- Delilah: She is the scion of a powerful clan, which she abuses to no end. All through the area, she is known for indulging in all sorts of cruel and petty acts. However, she gets away with it not just thanks to her birthright but thanks to being able to use Calm on victims and witnesses. Attacking honoured guests for stealing attention? Haha that's okay. Steal food from a child's hands? Even the child doesn't cry. Kicks someone's pet? Nobody bats an eye. The initial outrage is always soothed, and the punishments quietly forgotten amidst excuses of "she's just how she is." Woe betide you if you become the target of her attention.
- Gouger Gang: Prisoners all, who were condemned into slavery for their crimes. Each moans of their supposed innocence, as they toil in the hot sun to dig out troughs to catch rainwater. Their taskmaster, Khafre, is a slave as well. He always handles his charges with a firm yet understanding hand, but he's been slipping into more definite cruelty lately. If he can work everyone just a little harder, he may yet earn his freedom. Surely soon, surely just a little harder?
- Meresankh: She's a saltrunner, whose appearance is marred by bloody bandages and torn clothing. Meresankh recently ran into conflict with the rest of her group, and so she's been forced to survive on the run. She secretly rendezvous with the Gouger Gang (Encounter 10) while Khafre sleeps. She's trying to work out an escape attempt, in exchange for the Gang's help in raiding the rich supplies of her former group (Encounter 14).
- Enoch: A veteran of some water skirmish many years ago, these days Enoch is content living on the fringes of society and noodling for mud eels. Despite the dangers and the bitter slimy meat of the eels, Enoch is happy. In exchange for some goods or a hard day's work, he'll even pass you a bowl of boiled eel and give you some pointers on how to use stilts to navigate the mud flats.
- Metumetam: Metumetam is a nice young man, but sheltered and stupid. He has lived most of his life in luxury. However thanks to recent misfortunes he has been forced to use the last of his family's resource on supplies, to venture out into the flats and secure a new livelihood. He is heading out soon, and is woefully over-prepared despite the protestations of those who know better. His heavy pack is laden with numerous redundant tools and emergency rations and the like.
an Egyptian Vulture - Saltrunners: Each one is dressed in a marigold veil, and white coverings whose gloves and boots have been dyed black by ash and dust. They stalk Metumetam (Encounter 13), waiting for him to enter the flats and die from his hubris. If they are hassled: they will throw powdered saltwick into pursuers' faces, kick up salt clouds, and then scatter as they circle around for a better opportunity later.
- Agam: A massive brawny woman, with wild-eyes only magnified by goggle lenses and a full-face mask in lieu of a veil. She claims to be from the foothills of the mountains at the edge of the world. She's heading back there soon, to a little valley where its verdant and green and nobody is ever thirsty. If you're interested, why don't you come join her? All will be welcome in the valley!
- Underneath her coverings, there are just coils of Puddle Lattice in the shape of a woman. Her uncovered face is nothing but eyes mounted on thorns in front of an empty hole. Whatever she is, she roves across the land tricking travellers into following her- slowly letting them tire on the journey before killing and consuming them.
- Cult of the Salt Devil: Despite the name they are more like people who never grew up from disturbed youths, than an existential threat. Their like-minded group experiments with halioss- trying to come up with new ways to produce it, new things to do with it, etc. Many of them are there just to enjoy torturing small animals with the stuff in secret. Who knows how a charismatic leader or a new fascination might transform the group though...
- Oryxutan: Imagine an orangutan, except covered in bone-white crocodilian scales and with horns like an oryx. The Oryxutan are slow, lumbering, sturdy creatures. They mainly loiter by the edge of muddy waters- sleeping and rolling in the mud to stay cool. When they hunt though, they do so with startling quickness. They slam their horned heads to stun creatures, before either grabbing them and snapping their necks or smashing them to death against the flats. They are often characters in parables. Stupid slow creatures- tricked into playing or lapping up salt- who somehow still succeed over their clever counterparts, whom let arrogance dull their diligence.
- Uncontacted Haven: An isolated haven- no outsider has made it through their defences to speak with them. All that is known is that they are guarded by numerous archers, who pelt outsiders with blunted arrows with amazing accuracy and force. Those who have managed to make their way closer are instead shot with long piercing arrows that pin them to the ground, littering the flats around the town with the corpses of people left to desiccate in the salt and sun.
- Asherah: A Barbarian, sleeping outside in the shade. She's like a pest rooting around in a pile of refuse. She doesn't care for or understand people, but she craves the delicious food and drinks they produce. She sits outside of places and causes trouble until she's bribed with her wants or forced out by the keepers of the peace. Asherah is also deaf, cursed with the sound of cacophonous thunder ringing in her ears after some unknown offence to a worshiper of Storm. As such, they fly into rage easily and often.
- False Stars: Little insects, whose bellies light up like the stars. They emerge at night, and guide travellers off their intended course. They somehow are able to coordinate this such that they often cause multiple travellers to encounter one another in the dead of night. In the ensuing distraction, the swarm of False Stars descend on any exposed supplies and consume as much as they can before they can be swatted away.
I feel really lucky this GLoGmas! I remember first reading the wonderful setting posts over at Knicks & Knacks earlier this year and appreciating the vibes, so writing this has been a genuine pleasure! In fact this was almost entirely written the night announcements went up, going straight through until sunrise in a joyful little all-nighter haze.
CommonUse (aka aredoaktree), thank you so much for the copiously salty playground! I hope you have a wonderful holiday season!
