Dread Sand
"Misery loves company, but the dead demand it."
Deep within the Wastes, a shadow of ancient horrors lingers, suffusing the barren landscape with an air of lingering malaise. The Elves of Gaul Do Shah, once celebrated for their profound connection to the arcane and natural realms, succumbed to a darkness that shattered their minds and morality. During this descent into madness, they conjured unspeakable acts of cruelty upon those less fortunate, ensnaring wanderers and locals alike in a grotesque display of their warped creativity. The landscape itself, marred by the psychic scars of these brutalities, retains the memory of pain and terror. This region is haunted not only by the physical remnants of its gruesome past but also by an overwhelming psychic imprint left by the multitude of souls who perished in anguish. The sands here are not mere inanimate grains but a repository of accumulated suffering, a sentient entity borne of collective torment. Like a drowning victim in their final desperate moments, the spirits embedded within the sands reach out to the living, driven by an insatiable desire for release.
Travelers who wander too close to these accursed places report eerie phenomena: whispers carried on the wind, sudden chills, or the unnerving sensation of being watched. More terrifying still are the tales of those who have stepped upon the Dread Sands only to find themselves gripped by unseen hands, dragged towards the earth as the sand shifts and moans with the voices of the damned. These unfortunate souls often disappear, swallowed by the sands, adding to the spectral chorus that haunts the Wastes. The very ground in these cursed areas has morphed into a form of quicksand, trapping all who tread too lightly over its surface. It’s said that the sands hunger for the living, needing fresh souls to quell the unrest of the dead, serving as both a grave and a prison, where the boundary between life and death blurs into a macabre dance of fate, driven by the undying grief and fury of those who can neither live nor rest in peace.
Basic Information
Anatomy
On the surface, Dread Sand appears indistinguishable from any other part of the barren terrain of the Wastes. It consists of sand and detritus, but this mundane appearance belies the true nature lurking just beneath. Below the surface, the Dread Sand is more akin to a shallow mass grave than to typical sand. The upper layer, just a few inches deep, may contain numerous decayed hands and other remnants of the deceased, often only partially covered by a thin layer of dust and sand.
The sands are saturated with the psychic imprints of the suffering and terror experienced by those who died there. This psychic energy is not just a passive remnant; it actively influences the behavior of the sand, causing it to react to the presence of the living. The Dread Sand can shift and move with unnatural agility, almost as if it were a living organism. This mobility is primarily used to trap and ensnare anything that walks over it. The decayed hands and other body parts can reach up and grab hold of unsuspecting victims, pulling them down into the sand. Functioning as a collective entity, the individual spirits within the Dread Sand retain a degree of cognitive function but are subsumed by the overwhelming emotions of hate and despair that bind them together. They act in unison, driven by a shared desire for release or revenge.
Physically, Dread Sand blends seamlessly with its environment, making it nearly impossible to detect until it is too late. The entity emits a strong aura of pain and fear, detectable by sensitive individuals such as spiritualists. This aura can cause debilitating effects, such as intense headaches or a sense of overwhelming dread, which impairs the abilities of those who come too close. The Dread Sand exhibits behaviors typical of an ambush predator. It remains still and undetected until prey approaches closely enough, then quickly acts to immobilize and eventually consume the victim, absorbing them into its mass.
Biological Traits
Dread Sand takes up anywhere from a 30' area to the huge examples which can cover up to and over 100' area. Every victim that falls to the creature only serves to add to its size and danger. They function as an unintelligent creature despite the individual spirits retaining their cognitive function, they are lost within the base elements of the nature of the Dread Sand.
Spiritualist Interactions The exception to the rule, a Spiritualist of any level will be overcome with an overwhelming sense of dread within a 30' distance of Dread Sand as they emanate an aura of the pain and fear that they are sensitive to. The level of the Spiritualist will dictate how much information they can learn from this sensation, but most of them will have a reaction not unlike a horrific migraine in this area, giving them a -1 penalty on all combat and skill rolls.
Ecology and Habitats
Dread Sand is predominantly found in the Wastes, a desolate and barren region that has a history steeped in tragedy and psychic turmoil. This area is characterized by its sparse vegetation, harsh climate, and the remnants of past horrors that have left a psychic imprint on the land. The optimal environment for Dread Sand includes areas with high concentrations of psychic residue. These are often sites of mass deaths, battlefields, or places of great suffering and despair. The psychic energy emanating from these sites provides the necessary sustenance and strength to the Dread Sand, allowing it to grow and exert its influence.
Dread Sand forms a type of psychic symbiosis with its environment. It absorbs the residual psychic energies, which not only fuels its existence but also enhances its predatory capabilities. This relationship makes it a natural guardian of these blighted lands, albeit a malevolent one. The presence of Dread Sand typically results in a barren and lifeless immediate surrounding area. Its psychic aura and the fear it instills can deter animal life and even affect the growth of plants, further adding to the desolation of its habitat. It can also subtly manipulate its immediate surroundings to better camouflage itself and enhance its effectiveness as an ambush predator. This might involve slight shifts in the sand or rearranging debris to create more enticing or deceptive paths for potential victims. Each time Dread Sand successfully captures and consumes a victim, it adds to its mass and psychic energy, allowing it to expand its territory slightly. This incremental growth can gradually alter the landscape, increasing the area considered dangerous to traverse.
Given its composition of multiple tortured souls, Dread Sand has a profound impact on the spiritual realm of its environment. It may act as a beacon for other disturbed spirits or as a trap that ensnares them, further increasing its power and influence.
Behaviour
Dread Sand functions as a singular entity despite being composed of multiple individual spirits. These spirits have lost their individual autonomy and are merged into a collective consciousness that drives the entity’s actions. There is no differentiation or competition within the entity itself; it acts as one. Any interaction that might be considered 'between members' is essentially an internal process within the collective. The spirits communicate and react internally to consolidate their actions towards common goals, such as trapping prey or responding to threats.
Dread Sand exhibits classic ambush predator behavior. It remains perfectly still and indistinguishable from its surroundings, waiting for unsuspecting prey to wander too close. Once the prey is within reach, it uses the decayed hands and other appendages to grasp and pull the victim beneath the sand, trapping them. In addition to physical entrapment, Dread Sand may manipulate the fears and emotions of its prey, exacerbating their panic and helplessness, which makes them easier to subdue and consume. Upon capturing its prey, Dread Sand absorbs not only the physical body but also the spiritual energy of the victim, which adds to its collective power and sustains its existence.
Additional Information
Social Structure
Spiritual Siphonophorae Dread Sand is an undead entity made up of many individual creatures that function as a whole. The individual spirits trapped there are still independent and aware, but have lost themselves within the overwhelming hate and anger that connects them all together. They move and attack in perfect unison, but it is theoretically possible to break this unity by somehow making the spirits remember themselves. The dead that make up the core of a Dread Sand pit, regardless of what they were in life, have been directly affected by the taint of the Void and how it has affected the lands of the Wastes. The psychic resonance of all their suffering has congealed into a mass of hate and lust for revenge. This phenomenon has led to the mass of spiritual energy radiating a strong aura of evil, though it is undirected.
Average Intelligence
Dread Sand's intelligence is an amalgamation of the residual cognitive functions of each spirit contained within it. While each spirit retains a base level of individual awareness, their cognitive abilities are intertwined and operate as a single entity. This collective intelligence allows for a more coordinated and unified response to environmental stimuli than any single spirit could manage alone. It primarily displays reactive intelligence, responding to the presence of living beings or threats in its vicinity. It does not plan or strategize in the traditional sense but reacts instinctively based on the collective impulses and memories of the spirits that make up its form.
The entity possesses a heightened awareness of its immediate surroundings through sensory inputs such as vibrations, pressure changes, and perhaps even thermal variations. This awareness is critical for its survival and efficacy as an ambush predator. While not capable of high-level problem-solving, Dread Sand can adapt its behavior based on past interactions. For example, if previous attempts to capture prey in a certain manner were unsuccessful, the entity might alter its method slightly within the scope of its instinctive capabilities.
A significant aspect of Dread Sand’s intelligence is its ability to manipulate the emotions of others through its psychic presence. It can instill fear, despair, and confusion in its prey, which can be seen as a form of psychological warfare, indicating a strategic use of its innate abilities.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
The Dread Sand exhibits a heightened sense of touch. Through the countless decayed hands and other remnants embedded within its mass, it can detect vibrations and pressure changes caused by the movements of potential victims walking above. This allows it to precisely locate and target unsuspecting prey that treads on its surface.
One of the most significant extrasensory capabilities of the Dread Sand is its ability to detect and resonate with psychic energies. This includes sensing fear, despair, and other intense emotions which are abundant in the area due to its history of suffering and death. The Dread Sand is deeply connected to the spiritual realm due to the souls bound within it. This connection grants it an awareness of spiritual presences, making it sensitive to spiritualists or other beings with strong psychic or magical auras. The entity emanates an aura of dread that can be overwhelming to sensitive individuals. This aura acts both as a deterrent to would-be attackers and as a psychological weapon against prey, weakening their resolve and making them easier to ensnare.
Civilization and Culture
Major Language Groups and Dialects
Languages None (Individual spirits retain languages known in life)
- Ambush. Characters that do not detect the Dread Sand suffer a disadvantage to avoid being grabbed by the pit's hands as the creatures spring into action. The Dread Sand will usually take a round to allow a potential victim to get as close to the center as possible before attempting to grab the feet.
- Perfect Camouflage. Physically, Dread Sand looks just like the rest of the environment it inhabits. The surface is covered with sand and debris, hiding its true nature . Passive perception rolls are made at disadvantage. An active search that is successful but does not trigger an attack will find a shallow grave. Touching any of the hands on the surface initiates an attack of opportunity.
Scientific Name
Arenamortis vexator
Lifespan
Effectively immortal
Geographic Distribution
Related Ethnicities
Comments