Location The Oasis

[Gossamer]

O a s i s One day the land outside the city was smooth, perfect. The next, and there came a flash of what some said was gods' light, what others claimed to be wild djed... a roaring dimly heard by the city, a small earthquake like the death of a mountain... and a gigantic hole simply appeared in the ground. At first the citizens truly believed the hole to be a hole, and just that-- a powerful work of magic by an unknown visitor from the Sea of Grass. Then the truth of it emerged: it wasn't a hole, not truly... but a lake. Thought to be the product of uncontrolled reimancy and unknown motivations, Oasis seems to have been born within chimes, perhaps even ticks. It is speculated that in a moment of colossal effort, a thus-forth unidentified mage shoved the top layer of earth far deep into the ground beneath it. Ordinarily such a tactic would have been a fool's errand, even impossible... but due to the porous cave-strewn land surrounding Riverfall, it is thought that the top layer of earth and rock was successfully forced down, into a spacious, empty cavern below: the hallowed out site of a yet undiscovered body of water. Chunks of rock and dirt landed in the water some fifty feet beneath the land opening, and throughout the next few bells settled to the very bottom of the newly uncovered lake. The once-subterranean lake is deep in the middle (nearly 100 ft at its floor), though relatively shallow on the sides, allowing activities like wading and rest from swim. The water itself is brackish, a combination of fresh and salt. Though the edges of the cavern are free of passageways, there must be another access point to the lake besides that through the cave's ceiling; otherwise, the lake itself could not have existed. Underwater springs are the most likely explanation, perhaps leading in twisting tunnels beneath the ground all the way to the Suvan. The sides of the cavern itself are naturally formed with rocky ledges and handholds that could be used for climbing. Though it is assumed that up until this point the cavern lake did not have access to open air and sunlight, vines and green plants already have begun to collect on its walls, as if eager to grow. Birds and other small animals have begun building their nests on the sides of the rocky cavern, in little nooks and crannies, and it is not uncommon to see colorful fish lazing about in the depths below amongst a bit of light-starved coral. Crabs, crayfish, and starfish hang out in the shallows, and dragonflies (DRAGONflies?-- not dragon?) skim the clear, calm surface. It appears that wildlife of all kinds has been attracted to the lake's immediate area, creating a boundary up to a mile-wide on all sides of the lake itself. The grass seems to grow just a bit taller and stay greener within that boundary, tree and bush saplings have begun to sprout unusually thick, and a herd of wild goats have taken up immediate residence, thriving on the land. Some citizens have claimed to spot a Cyphrus Strider prancing around the area --now called Oasis-- though the poor beast is riderless, alone. Other happenings have lent Oasis a peculiar reputation-- even that of being haunted. Approaching the lake and its ring of newborn vegetation, a person gets a feeling of unease, the air feeling charged as if before a particularly nasty thunderstorm. Persist in getting closer, and one's head begins to feel strange, as if it is opening up, as if it is no longer a singular head, but multiple, though the sensation is entirely too hard to explain with mere words. Progress further yet, and the nervousness in the air should increase, along with stabs of illness in the gut, belly-flops, and racing heart. At this time most citizens have turned back and quickly retreated, unable to bear the otherness of the place and its ill-feeling. Continue further still, however, and for a moment a person will find their own mind to belong to someone else entirely, a stranger... odd nonsensical visions flash before the eyes, the hands make arcane gestures, the lips utter unknown words... a process which sometimes triggers the djed of magic-users old and young. But now, so close to the Oasis, there is the distinct feeling of being on the cusp, at the edge... the sensations are almost maddening. Instead of repelling, the insanity seems to pull one forward as if down an imperceptible slope, faster and faster, running, sprinting and gasping, almost there. That's when the outsider bursts into the midst of Oasis-- as soon as the physical body crosses the green border and enters the dawning lushness of land. The sickness felt earlier fades down to nothing. The disorder of the mind remains, but suddenly it is no longer a cause for worry. It just is. There is a feeling of interconnection, of knowing every plant and animal, every person who dared come so far. This is accompanied by a feeling of thrumming energy, as if the very bones of the body have been filled to the point of cracking, a feeling that lends power for as long as a person remains in that beautiful but bizarre place. Once leaving the Oasis area, things will happen in reverse. The pleasant feelings discovered within Oasis will dim, and the other feelings experienced on the way in will renew, redouble. The illness will return, but will eventually fade... though not entirely. Leaving Oasis is like leaving a haven where everything is brighter, cleaner, nicer. Abandoning its influence will leave a visitor with any range of symptoms, depending on the time spent within: a cold or cough, itchiness, sore throat, the flu, nausea, exhaustion, rash, even fever and hallucinations. The longer the stay, the more dire the consequence. However, all ill effects will have healed, or begun healing, by the next day, sometimes disappearing within bells as if having never existed at all.   Guardian Oasis appears to have a guardian: a Cyphrus Strider, free of reins or yvas. The Strider does not seem to mind company, and usually accepts gifts of friendship from visitors, such as treats or a good brushing or companionship, and will even allow some to ride her... but should any person within the Oasis area become classified as a threat in her mind, she will attack relentlessly until the threat has been driven away. Only then will she regain her usual, pleasant peacefulness. She rarely, if ever, leaves Oasis. Secret : Some say the recuperation process for visiting the Oasis area is well worth the benefits reaped within. Besides the feelings of belonging, of connection, of power, comes a true wonder: mages find their supply of djed nearly doubled as long as they stay within the sphere of Oasis' influence. This makes the lake and surrounding area perfect for the practicing and use of magic, like a sort of djed-imbued training ground. No one knows why this happens; it just does. Webbers --Drykas-- are the only ones who may one day understand. Clear to their vision but no one else's is the source of the surplus djed: an intricate layout of webbing, but unlike any they've seen, arranged in glyphs and patterns and only half-formed. Intuition would likely determine that whatever or whoever caused the ground to open up also caused this new layer of webbing... but the purpose of which, or what the webbing-glyphs are for, is as yet unknown. Amongst all the mystery is a shade. Only rarely glimpsed within Oasis, the poor elderly man seems lost, confused, and sad. Speaking to him may bring forth information as to the creation of the lake and the supernatural properties of the area... but more than likely the shade will only smile and fade away, too tired or ashamed to reveal his failure.   Lejos Dewborne Name: Lejos Dewborne Race: Web Shade (formerly Human, Drykas) DoB: 77th of Summer, 455 AV (49 years old @ death) PoB: Endrykas Title: Spider Skills: Leeching (83), Glyphing (80), Reimancy (79), Webbing (64) Gnosis: -- History: Lejos had been a student of magic all his life. He was born into the Sapphire clan, a Drykas pavilion known for its skill in webbing and reimancy. Having shown great aptitude and enthusiasm for both disciplines as a child and later as a young man, Lejos then took to spending equal time studying with the Emerald clan, picking up their knowledge of glyphing in order to better control and utilize his djed. A few years into adulthood Lejos' thirst for arcane knowledge had only grown, and so his family gave permission for him to seek further education at the University of Zeltiva, believing him to be a genius. There he stayed for a majority of his adult life, dabbling in various areas of study, finding particular interest in the combination of disciplines and eventually earning a position as researcher and as a lecturer. All was going well until news came of the great losses to the Drykas during the Djed Storm of 512 AV-- a storm which left his own branch of the Sapphire clan in tatters. Now desperate to use his gifts to serve his homeland and people, Lejos began intensive study in what he had once thought of as a forbidden discipline: leeching. He believed that with access to a larger pool of djed his magic would be more efficient for spinning and repairing the fallen Drykas' web across Cyphrus, a duty that had suddenly become quite important due to elevated levels of hostility from Zith and wild animals in the Sea. The physical consequences of his furious study were enormous, and those close to Lejos watched him seemingly age years for every month he spent in his practice. Despite his now failing health, Lejos was able to complete the journey back to Cyphrus, mind full of knowledge and plans. Unfortunately, Lejos' drive became his downfall. Already greatly weakened, he ignored the urges of his clansmen that his ideas were too dangerous to complete, traveling to an area near Riverfall which he believed would help facilitate his use of magic. It was there that he perished, in a flash of djed so powerful it left a strange cavern lake where he had stood. Personality: Though not always readily present in Oasis, if met Lejos is a truly melancholy figure. Within the last few years of his life his health dwindled rapidly, confining him to illness: his shade walks slowly and painfully and only with the aid of a walking stick, is terribly thin and frail, and appears much much older than his 49 years. Despite the torture he has put himself through and the terrible magic he has taught himself to wield, Lejos comes across as incredibly gentle, polite, and even sweet, if a bit preoccupied. It is obvious that his mind is elsewhere, whether that be roaming what's left of the djed web, yearning for his pavilion home in Endrykas, or even wishing he were back and completing his unfinished studies in the place that had come to be his second home, Zeltiva. secret 2 : Plans: Lejos planned to use an experimental form of magic to funnel large amounts of wild djed through his body. He based this magic off the idea of djed shackles, a sort of antimagic, which are the equivalent of a 'tap' used to release djed from a mage's natural circulation. His experiment: he would take the idea of djed shackles and apply it to the djed of the land, creating a djed 'tap' that he could then use his leeching skill upon freely and without restraint. This he did near Riverfall where he detected a large pool of untapped wild djed. Lejos thought the land-shackling could be used as a faucet, allowing him to better control the amount of wild djed he accessed at one time. He used leeching to absorb the djed, and then immediately released it-- in the form of a djed web. In this way, he thought he could quickly repair large sections of the Drykas' web which had been nealy obliterated in the Djed Storm... all he would need to do was funnel the massive amounts of wild djed immediately in and then out again through his body without holding on to it for more than a tick, turning it instantaneously from something wild into useful web. That web could then be rapidly laid out for thousands and thousands of miles across Cyphrus. All in all, he thought the process would take chimes, perhaps a bell at most, a period of extreme concentration and exertion. He knew that this use of leeching was likely to kill him, and he was prepared for that possibility for the sake of helping re-establish his people's safety. In order to help control the flow of djed, Lejos first laid out an intricate invisible system of glyphs on a large scale-- approximately a mile around him in all directions (the area which would become Oasis when he failed). The glyphs he made out of webbing in the hopes that doing so would forge an unusually intimate link between the glyphs and the rest of the webbing that he planned to create. The glyphs would be used to restrict, channel, combine, and stabilize the wild djed into a less dangerous, usable form that he might be more able to control in great amounts. This was an attempt to limit the amount of time the complex set of spellwork would take. As a final fail-safe, Lejos planned a series of glyphs that he could trigger with a combination of gesture and incantation in order to quickly expel any excess djed if he felt himself losing control. These glyphs would prompt him to stop laying out webbing --a very djed-light magic-- and instead switch to reimancy --which is very djed-intensive. He believed that if he was overwhelmed by wild djed he could use the fail-safe to hurriedly rid himself of copious amounts of that djed. This would then allow him to break contact with the djed 'tap' he had created, effectively 'turning off' his access so that he might recover, or try again. Despite all his precautions, Lejos' ambitions were too much for him to handle. Due to his already frail condition from leeching, the power was more difficult than ever to manipulate-- along with the Sweet Whispers inherent in the combination of magical disciplines. Though his body grew ever weaker under the stress of the djed, Lejos' resolve grew stronger, more confident, enticing him to leech more, cast more. By the time he realized what was happening and triggered the fail-safe, it was much too late. The amount of djed he had absorbed was magnificent, and Lejos did not realize the anatomy of the land and the cave system that lay underneath his feet. Instead of casting earth reimancy that would waste a whole lot of energy doing little more than causing a small earthquake, he accidentally punched through the ground into the empty bubble of air below-- the site of the Oasis lake. From there, all was lost. Lejos was not able to recover fast enough to expend more djed in the form of reimancy, and the power overwhelmed him entirely, killing him in an instant. His webbing glyphs lit up, containing the exploding djed, storing it... but the amount of power stressed even those, warping them, causing them to slightly malfunction (effectively, their own djed coding was marred by the large force that washed over them). The land-shackles, the 'tap' Lejos had placed, was not able to close before he died, and so continued leaking wild djed into the immediate area in smaller amounts... which would then continue to fuel into the storage capacities of the unfinished djed web. That had been cleverly set up, sunk into the land itself, anchored at the place where the land-shackle 'tap' was made in order to improve its effeciency. Now: The mile-radial circle of area became super-charged with djed. The amount of free djed in the air incited plants to grow preternaturally fast, and also caused animal populations to flock to the area, causing it to become a real oasis, for which it would soon be named. With enough time, the area might begin to attract other creatures, monsters drawn to the large amount of djed bubbling forth in the Oasis area, intent on preying on the magic. Due to the malfunction of the web, its usual properties were somewhat displaced. Those who come into contact with it immediately become a part of the web, though they are not tied in classically, as the Drykas do their Strider colts and children. Instead, the web itself was damaged... leaving the ends 'open' to attach to any living forms that cross within its borders, and detach when that living thing passes out of the area of influence again. Because of that, any being that touches the web feels an immediate connection to the other beings around it-- a sort of mild telepathy inherent in webbing that allows webbed individuals to connect to each other. Also, due to the original function of the web --the collection of wild djed-- any excess djed in the area is absorbed into the web and then unwittingly 'leeched' back out to any person that connects to the web. This is what creates the boost of djed felt within the area, as well as the leeching side effects felt when a djed-user leaves Oasis (i.e. the sickness they experience is a product of the leeching). The air of uneasiness that seems to surround Oasis is a natural reaction when coming in proximity to the super-charged, free-leeching area. The strange mental episodes experienced come from becoming connected and adjusted to the mild telepathy of the web. *Note: Those in contact with the web do not automatically earn skill in webbing or leeching, as they are not consciously practicing these skills. Because Lejos was so invested in his project at his time of death, his spirit was trapped within the area of webbing that he set up. It says in the webbing lore that "[e]ach Web Mage weaves something of themselves into every web creation. The more powerful they are, the more of themselves they leave." Due to this principle, nearly all --if not all-- of Lejos was left in his final web... causing him to become a 'web shade', only visible when outsiders access the web and become a part of it. However, like most ghosts Lejos' shade is very distracted... and like most high-level web mages, his mind seems to be always somewhere else. This makes him entirely difficult to converse with, though it is not impossible to catch his attention, at least for a short while. Lastly, the Cyphrus Strider seen in the webbed area around Oasis is Lejos' Melissant. Due to her connection to the web, she is likely able to feel Lejos' trapped presence, and her loyalty causes her to wait for him, and protect him should she feel he is threatened. Anyone tampering with the web may become the object of her rage. Otherwise, she will not act hostile towards any visitors. The circle of Oasis' influence is thus: With the blue being the cavern lake at the center, the dark green being the 2-mile diameter circle of webbed area, and the lighter greenish-yellow being the border area that becomes increasingly unpleasant to cross until the last few feet (about 50 ft across total). *Note: Oasis is both the cavern-lake (itself currently nameless) and the green circle-area around it, not one or the other. *Credit for location goes to Kyo.