Underlight Discord Chat: http://discord.underlight.com/
Production Server: Online (Version 3.1.15)
Player Test Realm Server: Offline (Version 3.1.15)

The Sand Witch's castle

Post Reply
User avatar
Perram Riptide
Dreamer
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2022 7:41 pm
Character Name(s): Perram

The Sand Witch's castle

Post by Perram Riptide »

While on a stroll on the lost sea, you come across a long fish tail with a codex: If you're an airbreather without fins or gills, put this on and dive into the lost sea to visit my entry to the sandcastle contest in honor of Stormy Alexis - Perram Riptide Ommaya'hra
Last edited by Perram Riptide on Sun Jan 15, 2023 8:17 pm, edited 2 times in total.
~A box jellyfish has no brain, but it has feelings and it has a soul~

~A merman who is in love with the ocean only thinks about water~
User avatar
Perram Riptide
Dreamer
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2022 7:41 pm
Character Name(s): Perram

Re: The Sand Witch's castle

Post by Perram Riptide »

At the dark reaches of the bottom of the lost sea, a whale-sized fortress of reinforced sand and bedrock looms before you. Arond the castle's perimeter, parapets of alabaster line nine spires capped with titanic turban shells.

As you swim closer, the light on the seafloor dims as you sink deeper into the castle's shadow. Magenta coral branches garden the sandy courtyard and high above a spiral shell as wide as three mermen you see a plaque that reads:

HERE RESIDES AN AVATAR OF SSILIKARN THE SAND GODDESS. ALL THOSE WHO ENTER HERE SEEKING TO STEAL MY TREASURES WILL NEVER SEE THE WORLD OF LIGHT AGAIN.

Near the shell barricading the entrance is a feather-star crinoid atop a stone pedestal.

You awake a feather star and it floats to the shell. The shell rumbles and laughs as the feathery starfish-creature wriggles on it, and a slimy seasnail pops out if its shell and swims away. The entrance to the sand witch's castle is open.
Last edited by Perram Riptide on Sun Jan 15, 2023 8:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
~A box jellyfish has no brain, but it has feelings and it has a soul~

~A merman who is in love with the ocean only thinks about water~
User avatar
Perram Riptide
Dreamer
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2022 7:41 pm
Character Name(s): Perram

Re: The Sand Witch's castle

Post by Perram Riptide »

You are at the entrance of a long sand tunnel, dimly lit only by the bioluminescance of oarfish asleep along the sides of the walls. There is a translucscent jellyfish membrane stretched between two stone columns supporting the foundation of the sand ceiling of the way you came in. To go in, you must push aside the membrane and topple over the columns.
Last edited by Perram Riptide on Sun Jan 15, 2023 8:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
~A box jellyfish has no brain, but it has feelings and it has a soul~

~A merman who is in love with the ocean only thinks about water~
User avatar
Perram Riptide
Dreamer
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2022 7:41 pm
Character Name(s): Perram

Re: The Sand Witch's castle

Post by Perram Riptide »

The ceiling caves in the entrance, trapping you inside. The only way to go is forward.

...

The tunnel ahead twists and turns, over and under. There is no end in sight.

...
Last edited by Perram Riptide on Sun Jan 15, 2023 8:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
~A box jellyfish has no brain, but it has feelings and it has a soul~

~A merman who is in love with the ocean only thinks about water~
User avatar
Perram Riptide
Dreamer
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2022 7:41 pm
Character Name(s): Perram

Re: The Sand Witch's castle

Post by Perram Riptide »

You have entered a large, open area lit by the radiance of glowing jellyfish bobbing and sinking freely. Marble columns support rings of stone decked as floors of this mountainous chamber. No stairs are needed to swim to the 3 stories of rings where seaweed and tapestries hang as decoration.

At the bottom level are sand statues of merman gods, heroes, and monsters unknown to you. Their faces stare with stoic intensity. Fastened to the walls are tridents, staffs, and maces adorned with pearls and shells. They are carved in shapes resembling eels and seahorses.

On the walls of the second level, ink portraits hang depicting scenes of ocean locales and strange creatures. The stone ring is patterned with a path of cobblestone pebbles

The third level has eight doorways, with runes that speak out to you as labels marked "Tentacle" one through eight. Near the center of the ceiling are runes that read "Tower Nine" surrounding a large central structure.

In the middle of this three story room is a trio of sand columns twisted in a triple-helix formation. Each helix of sand is connected by coral girders that should not be sturdy, but a slight twinkling suggests magic is at play here that is stronger than any adhesive. At the top is a hole into tower nine.
  1. Enter Tentacle 1
  2. Enter Tentacle 2
  3. Enter Tentacle 3
  4. Enter Tentacle 4
  5. Enter Tentacle 5
  6. Enter Tentacle 6
  7. Enter Tentacle 7
  8. Enter Tentacle 8
  9. Enter Tentacle 9
Last edited by Perram Riptide on Sun Jan 15, 2023 8:54 pm, edited 8 times in total.
~A box jellyfish has no brain, but it has feelings and it has a soul~

~A merman who is in love with the ocean only thinks about water~
User avatar
Perram Riptide
Dreamer
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2022 7:41 pm
Character Name(s): Perram

Re: The Sand Witch's castle

Post by Perram Riptide »

Tentacle One

This room has a red glow coming from cauldrons streaming hot bubbles from a volcanic vent below as the room's centerpiece. There are barrel sponges filled with seafoods such as tuna and seaweed at the sides of the room. At the far end of the room are tables with cooking utensils and silverware.

You make tuna sushi! Yum!
Last edited by Perram Riptide on Sun Jan 15, 2023 8:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
~A box jellyfish has no brain, but it has feelings and it has a soul~

~A merman who is in love with the ocean only thinks about water~
User avatar
Perram Riptide
Dreamer
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2022 7:41 pm
Character Name(s): Perram

Re: The Sand Witch's castle

Post by Perram Riptide »

Tentacle Two:

A female anglerfish lights a library with hundreds of books in shelfs of earth.

You read the rainbow fish. A classic!
You also find a worn out magazine with a bare merman's pectorals on the cover.
~A box jellyfish has no brain, but it has feelings and it has a soul~

~A merman who is in love with the ocean only thinks about water~
User avatar
Perram Riptide
Dreamer
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2022 7:41 pm
Character Name(s): Perram

Re: The Sand Witch's castle

Post by Perram Riptide »

Tentacle Three

A pair of oarfish light a harp sponge in the center of this room. A creature resembling a row of white tubes. A page of sheet music floats above this whimsical creature. It's named after a harp, but its tubes look somewhat like... organ pipes? It wriggles as if begging out to you to play with is.

You played Bach's Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor. You're talented!
~A box jellyfish has no brain, but it has feelings and it has a soul~

~A merman who is in love with the ocean only thinks about water~
User avatar
Perram Riptide
Dreamer
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2022 7:41 pm
Character Name(s): Perram

Re: The Sand Witch's castle

Post by Perram Riptide »

Tentacle Four

Pearls in the ceiling light this room and a pile of heavy pearls sits in front of a long, polished board with ten cucumbers standing in a triangle formation at the end. There are gutters at the sides of the board that are as deep as the size of the bowling pearls.

You pick up a pearl and roll is at the cucumbers.

Strike! You get a pearl for a prize.
~A box jellyfish has no brain, but it has feelings and it has a soul~

~A merman who is in love with the ocean only thinks about water~
User avatar
Perram Riptide
Dreamer
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2022 7:41 pm
Character Name(s): Perram

Re: The Sand Witch's castle

Post by Perram Riptide »

Tentacle Five

There is a large, open clam on a desk in this room with a mirror inside the top shell. Smaller clams on the desk glow from the inside and glow at an angle for perfect clarity of your reflection. Bottles of ambergris and makeup, cones made of fish bones, fluffy sponges, and powdery feather stars litter most of the table space.

You apply makeup with a powder sponge that makes you look like you're a clownfish with a red nose.

You clean off your face with an unused sponge and head out.
~A box jellyfish has no brain, but it has feelings and it has a soul~

~A merman who is in love with the ocean only thinks about water~
User avatar
Perram Riptide
Dreamer
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2022 7:41 pm
Character Name(s): Perram

Re: The Sand Witch's castle

Post by Perram Riptide »

Tentacle Six

There is a giant glowing octopus spinning in the room with a seahorse in each of its tentacles. The seahorses are big enough for you to take a ride.

You ride the merry go round. The octopus gives you a silver seahorse pendant as a souvenir.
~A box jellyfish has no brain, but it has feelings and it has a soul~

~A merman who is in love with the ocean only thinks about water~
User avatar
Perram Riptide
Dreamer
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2022 7:41 pm
Character Name(s): Perram

Re: The Sand Witch's castle

Post by Perram Riptide »

Tentacle Seven

Vents of bubbles are blowing all around this room. The warmth of the bubbles is like sitting in a jacuzzi. Some of the jetstreams are powerful enough to blow you around the room.

You take a ride for a while. When you stop, a shiny, gold bubble floats in front of you that doesn't pop to you touch. You take it.
~A box jellyfish has no brain, but it has feelings and it has a soul~

~A merman who is in love with the ocean only thinks about water~
User avatar
Perram Riptide
Dreamer
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2022 7:41 pm
Character Name(s): Perram

Re: The Sand Witch's castle

Post by Perram Riptide »

Tentacle Eight

Gnarled spires of glowing, xanadu green sand jut up from the floor in this room as an evil garden of spikes. Glowing stones and jewels float in this room and there are racks with vials of foul liquids decorating the walls. Golden staffs and talismans with strange geometries emanate an aura of malice, and there is a workbench with a pot of sand that changes colors and undulates in wavy motions. There is a tome on this workbench open to a page describing malevolent magic you can't understand. In the corner of the room is a hole with feral eyes looking at you and a giant maw with two shiny teeth: one for the top jaw, and one on the bottom. This mighty jaw can easily break you in two, but for now it sits peacefully.

You find an empty vial and fill it with magic sand. The sea witch's pet dunkleosteus roars and rushes out of its cave, mouth open to snap you in two. You swim out of the room and hear a large crash behind you. The dunkleosteus's head got stuck in the doorway. It struggles uselessly to charge forward, then gives up, and slips back to its cave in Tentacle Eight.
~A box jellyfish has no brain, but it has feelings and it has a soul~

~A merman who is in love with the ocean only thinks about water~
User avatar
Perram Riptide
Dreamer
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2022 7:41 pm
Character Name(s): Perram

Re: The Sand Witch's castle

Post by Perram Riptide »

Tentacle Nine

You swim to the top of tentacle nine you find an enormous feminine figure reclining on a throne of magenta and chartreuse coral with cushions of sponge. She is illuminated by the glow of mulitcolored polyps growing in the throne room, and before the base of the throne are mosaic tiles depicting squids and jellyfish at war with strangling tentacles. On the sand-witch's headdress is a three-pointed crown of silver embedded with jewlry and beige hair cascades over the throne's armrest and sways in the room's soft current, the ends writhing like tentacles. Her skin is dark amber-ochre and cracked like a sculpture of ancient sandstone, and the scallop shells at her breasts rise and contract with her snoring breaths. Trinkets of exotic ornaments hang from her neck in the shapes of cucumber fins, seastar tentacles, and crinoid petals. Her tail is scaly and the yellowish hue is washed out like a scorpion and ends in four long, thin, crimson tailfins hanging over the other armrest. In her claw-like hands she grips a gold rod capped with an hourglass-shaped jar of sand. The sand in the hour glass shifts as the rod bobs to her snores, and you see a pile of sand under the wand whirling and weaving with the motions. On the rod are engraved runes: "SAND WAND."

You force the sand wand out of the sea witch's grip and she awakens with a shrill demoniac screech.

"THIEF! BURGLAR! MEET THE WRATH OF A SAND WITCH PARTED FROM HER POSSESSIONS!"

She slithers off her throne and gives chase. You must escape quickly!
Last edited by Perram Riptide on Sun Jan 15, 2023 8:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
~A box jellyfish has no brain, but it has feelings and it has a soul~

~A merman who is in love with the ocean only thinks about water~
User avatar
Perram Riptide
Dreamer
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2022 7:41 pm
Character Name(s): Perram

Re: The Sand Witch's castle

Post by Perram Riptide »

The sand wand dissolves the sand in the sealed entrance and the wand slips out of your grip you escape with your life. The giant snail returns to his resting place in the doorway and the sea witch is trapped in her palace.

...

Several hours later

The feather star finds a lost sand wand drifting in the waves. It carries it to the seasnail, which wraps an eyestalk around the wand, withdraws into its shell, and ejects the wand into the castle. The featherstar goes to sleep on its pedestal.
~A box jellyfish has no brain, but it has feelings and it has a soul~

~A merman who is in love with the ocean only thinks about water~
Post Reply