Emerald Dunes in BREACH | World Anvil

Emerald Dunes

Seemingly endless dunes of green sand. Atmosphere and temperature were both tolerable, so a first-in team went in, and found the 'sand' consisted of very smooth, almost frictionless, particles, causing the team to sink waist deep. They got back to the breach because a team member had had the presence of mind to direct one of the long-range aerial drones back to serve as something to cling to and help pull them out. After a vehicle was suitably modified, the surrounding area was explored to a degree, but no evidence of any other terrain was found. Analysis of the 'sand' showed it was organic but inert, something like a photosynthetic diatom that had encapsulated. Ground-penetrating radar found possibly artificial structures buried about 60 or so feet down. This would likely have triggered some prolonged effort to get at them, but the world revealed another hazard: "Sand"storms where winds of over 100mph would scour plastic, metal, and flesh in minutes. One almost destroyed the second expedition, which barely made it back in what was left of their "sand crawler", and they occur with sufficient frequency and lack of warning so as to make sending out long-range aerial drones effectively impossible.

This remains a world of interest, as further analysis showed the "sand" is an extremely rich source of nutrients, and the possibility of some sort of buried civilization is compelling. Multiple designs for deep-diving probes to get a better sense of "what's down there" have failed; the "sand" is insidious, fouling mechanisms with alarming speed. The more "successful" probes which managed to get down a few dozen feet sent out some very unexplained signals before stopping, and the frequency was added to a 'lock list' without further official explanation.

Naturally, this drew the attention of a few organizations with unlicensed breach stabilizers, but if any of them have found anything but frustration or death, it has not been revealed.

World Type
Engineered
Divergence
N/A
Current Year
N/A

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