#sandswept ruins

[nino-ruins]

[officialleehadan]

Walnut Tree

Sandswept

+++

Eventually, Batu left too.

Rose was a little sad to see him go, but it did make things easier for her overall. If he wasn’t planning to help her, she needed him out of her way.

For once, the disrespect of her former friends was a boon. They didn’t even bother leaving a guard to make sure Zithad didn’t simply appear into the cell and recover her. Rose considered waiting for exactly that, but she found she was tired of being thought harmless. They brought her food, shortly after she was captured, but she wasn’t hungry earlier.

More importantly, she wanted to save the nuts they brought her, a handful of walnuts, for when she had some privacy to make good her escape.

As a healer, she had little talent for combat, and less for causing true harm to people. She had tried, a few times, and had to defend herself once or twice, but even then, she never managed to kill anyone. Even if she wanted to, her own magic would very probably turn on her if she did.

Of course, that didn’t mean she was helpless.

Warriors always discounted green magic. It was the domain of hedgemages, and healers.

Nothing to worry about.

No kind of threat.

No need to even bind her magic before throwing her in a cell.

Rose cradled one of the walnuts in her palms and smiled to herself as she let her magic, soft and green, pool in her hands.

It only took a little coaxing for the nut in her hands to green, and sprout.

Before it could get too big, she walked over to the cell door, and carefully fed the roots of the new little tree into the lock. A harder push of magic inspired the tree in her hands to grow with the might of the tree it would become. In moments, it filled both her hands, bright with life and putting on leaves quickly. The roots burrowed deep into the lock under her direction, until the delicate inner workings shredded apart.

Rose coaxed the little walnut tree out of the ruined lock, and pushed the cell door open.

To think, they locked her in a cell meant for common criminals.

The guard room was quiet when Rose peaked in. Again, the carelessness of her former friends showed itself. They didn’t even think she was worth guarding.

It didn’t take long to find a heavy cloak to cover her robes and hair. With the hood pulled low, she tucked her little tree into one of her robe’s deep pockets, and crept her way up the stairs to the main halls. This, at least, was familiar. She often snuck about these same halls when the royalty and her friends were in counsels she was not invited to.

Before, it had been an effort not to bother them. Now it was rather more directed.

Now she had a goal that was more than simply not making a nuisance of herself.

The royal offices, as the guard hall had been, were deserted. They usually were, in the afternoons, as the royalty went about their business elsewhere. There were a few scribes here and there, but they were used to hooded messengers. The spymaster’s offices were in the same wing as the royal ones, and it was better not to ask too many questions of them.

As she remembered, the office of King Yikard, the oldest monarch on the in the Alliance, was a picture of chaos. The old man hated teaching a new scribe how to manage his paperwork, and frequently replaced them when they annoyed him. As a result, his scribes never knew who was allowed to be in his office, or where anything went.

Rose, however, had been in his office many times, knew the old king, and didn’t’ care if she got a few useless papers at the same time she got the ones she wanted.

It was the work of a moment to gather up all of the papers she could find, strip the king’s box of letters, yet to be sent, and to replace them with others, from the chest of drawers where older reports were kept. At a glance, the messy office looked much the same as it had when she entered, and no one who could tell any different would be in before tomorrow morning.

“Well, well. Someone is hard at work.”

Rose stifled a shriek and whirled in place, only to find Zithad leaning in the doorway, a very amused smirk on his face. The sand around her wrist tightened briefly, and streamed through the air to his open hand.

“I thought I would be breaking you out of the cells,” he added as he walked towards her, and nodded to the hastily-packed bag of papers in her hand. “Instead, I find you cleaning out Yikard’s office. You surprise me every time we meet.”

“I’m tired of people thinking I’m helpless,” Rose told him determinedly, and finished packing up her bag of documents. “I’m not just a little white flower for them to pluck whenever they want. I have thorns too.”

“Yes, you do,” Zithad said with lazy satisfaction and a smile that rarely meant anything good for anyone. Rose found she liked the look of it. “Is that everything?”

“Unless you want to set the castle on fire before we go,” Rose told him, and laced her bag closed. “But it’s mostly stone. I don’t think it will do much good.”

“Might be fun, anyway,” Zithad said as Rose came to his side. He wrapped his arm around her and she leaned into him, relieved beyond measure to see him. “What’s a little chaos between enemies, anyway? Are you done?”

“I have everything worth having,” Rose confirmed. She checked her bag once more, and then the little tree in her pocket, which had stopped growing, but which she wanted to plant back in Sandhome. It saved her. She would care for it as it deserved. “Are you going to light everything on fire?”

“Wouldn’t want to come all this way without leaving a little mark of my regard,” Zithad said, and snapped his fingers. Little flames appeared over his fingers, more than a dozen of them, barely bigger than a candle-flame, and deep, malicious red. When he flicked his wrist, they shot off in every direction. The last one to go nestled into Yikard’s desk. The papers there immediately lit up, fueled by magic. Shouts came from all over the castle, the distress of a large number of people, who were just now realizing someone was causing trouble. “Now then, let’s away, and leave these fools to their fire.”

+++

Sandswept: (FULL COLLECTION)

Broken Hourglass

Underground Light

King Switch (Subscriber Only!)

Market Time (Subscriber Only!)

Portal Fall 

Bleeding Moss 

Walnut Tree 

Away Home (NEW!)

Safely Home (NEW!)

+++

MASTERLIST

[starsreminisce]

So about the ancient fae bloodline, a lot speculated that Archeron family is a part of this line. Do you think it came from the father or mother?

Your posts are very informative and really great read. Hope you are doing well ☺️

Thank you so much! I'm glad you're enjoying them, and yes, I am doing well!

I'll be honest, SJM tends to save her twists for her finales. KOA and HOFAS brought out some items that completely change things, which has sort of conditioned me not to try to guess the upcoming plots. (It's impossible because I quite enjoy seeing if I am right about certain plots. HOFAS was a little embarrassing where I guessed correctly what would be brought up, but the execution was way off.)

The way she has withheld information on their parents feels like one of those things that will eventually show a link to the TOG world. She did love using a lot of names that started with "A" and Lydia's son, Actaeon, feels a lot like Archeron to me (silly, I know!). I don't believe Lydia gave the reason for his name as she did with Bran.

Personally, I would guess it's more on the father's side because her last name was not mentioned at all in the first book. The planting of the seeds for connecting worlds in the second book was when we were told her last name.

I had not thought of my family name, had not used it, for years and years. Because even when I had sacrificed and hunted for them, I had not wanted my father’s name—not when he sat before that little fire and let us starve.

In the first book, Feyre observed ward-markings her father traded (HOF and QOS were written before ACOMAF). Her father urged her to stay in the fae lands. Perhaps the most interesting thing to me is that Helion approaching sparked a core memory for Feyre about her father with a lapis lazuli pendant, a stone of wisdom, truth, and warding off evil.

My father had once bought and traded a gold and lapis lazuli pendant that hailed from the ruins of an arid southeastern kingdom, where the Fae had ruled as gods amid swaying date palms and sandswept palaces. I’d been mesmerized by the colors, the artistry, but more interested in the shipment of myrrh and figs that had come with it—a few of the latter my father had snuck to me while I loitered in his office. Even now, I could still taste their sweetness on my tongue, still smell that earthy scent, and I couldn’t quite explain why, but … I remembered that ancient necklace and those exquisite delicacies as he prowled toward us.

I kicked my boots against the stone door frame, knocking the snow from them. Bits of ice came free from the gray stones of the cottage, revealing the faded ward-markings etched around the threshold. My father had once convinced a passing charlatan to trade the engravings against faerie harm in exchange for one of his wood carvings.

Papa Archie also knew something was amiss with the queens and acted, seemingly on instinct, to find Vassa. He was able to negotiate her release, and I feel like one of the few ways he would get leverage was through his family history.

Another thing was how three death gods seemed to be keen on Nesta being Made. Nesta described herself as her mother's creature and started to reject that pull to power the more she accepted about her complicated feelings towards her father.

Feyre knew little of her parents and only felt resentment towards her father in her later years. Nesta hated her father and his lack of action, but eventually learned to accept that she was worthy of the love he gave her.

Elain has the best relationship with her father, so I feel SJM is saving a lot of history until his story can be told by people who knew him when he was at his best.

Lowkey, it's a sweet headcanon if Papa Archie would tell Elain that her ancestor was that fae warrior who trapped the other Death Gods, in order to remind her of her own strength—that she is more than a pretty face.

Thank you for asking and again for your kind words!

[missari-fr]

honestly at this point i think plague flight has a serious victim complex when it comes to the coliseum venues.

it's not like the forgotten cave is peak earth aesthetic, light has to nebulously share the sandswept delta with lightning, and just because the arena is located in the sunbeam ruins doesn't really make it a light venue, it's beastclan-aligned if anything

like, arguably the only flights with super fitting coli venues are nature, fire, water, arcane, lightning, ice, and shadow- and maybe wind if i'm feeling generous, which i am not at present.

[magpiejay1234]

Day 100.

This is canonically the Day 97's mission, this one involves a simple boss battle with Antlion Heartless in Sandswept Ruins.

There is a bit of scenes with Aladdin, and Jasmine, and the mission ends with Roxas meeting back with Genie, and Carpet. Genie leaves Aladdin, and Jasmine alone to ensure their bond increases (and we keep canon with KH2).

This mission gives you Aero, and Gear Component A.

The diary entry is Roxas wondering if other Org. members had their own end of the work day routines.

[cyronite-fr]

Coliseum Egg Drop & Hatch Challenge

I've seen a few others do challenges like this and I wish to try my hand at something similar. The goal is for me to get an egg from each venue in the Coliseum, and than hatch that egg with the intention to keep it. After hatching the egg I'll create a gene plan and keep the gen1 I get.

Date Started: 2023-12-05 Dated Finished: tbd

Rules & Guidelines

This challenge is only considered complete once I have gotten an egg drop from every venue AND hatched + finished a gene plan for the dragon from that egg.

No time limit. I can take as long as I need for this challenge.

Must stay and grind in the same venue until I get an egg drop from that venue, and I must do them in order. No skipping. (Exceptions to this rule include fodder leveling, festival and notn grinding in other venues. However any egg drops from these do not count of course)

I have to hatch the egg from that venue, and I have to keep the gen1 from it to complete a gene plan for it (exception is that once the challenge is done I can do whatever I want with the dragon).

In regards to the gene plan, I can give the dragon any genes, eyes, or breed I wish, but I must keep the colours. No scattering.

I can take as long as I wish to complete the gene plans (they're expensive and I'm not made of dragon cash lmao) but I can't start working on the next g1 from this challenge until I finish the one before it.

I will record any other loot I get before the egg drop of that venue that I would like to or consider to be notable.

Venues List

Training Fields

Woodland Path

Scorched Forest

Boneyard

Sandswept Delta

Silk-Strewn Wreckage

Blooming Grove

Forgotten Cave

Bamboo Falls

Thunderhead Savanah

Redrock Cove

Waterway

Arena

Volcanic Vents

Rainsong Jungle

Boreal Wood

Crystal Pools

Harpy's Roost

Ghostlight Ruins

Mire

Kelp Beds

Golem Workshop

Forbidden Portal

[ivuul]

~~~THE DRIGHLANDS~~~ "These arid highlands and mesas feed into a sprawling rocky desert filled with tombs and cult activity. Dangerous creatures stalk every corner of this region and the greenwilders and wandering outsiders tend to keep out of this region, only ever staying on the road if they need to move through."

-- Jasper's Excacation Site: A large excavation site & desert cabin owned by Jasper the Greenwilde Investigator. He spends a lot of his time out here at this site studying the ancient almost-Egyptian ruins of the drighlands, as well as keeping a close eye on the Khal Ankur Cult activity. Crash Site: The crash site of a meteorite, this large crater is heavily guarded by the Khal Ankur Cult who view the meteorite as an important object to their god. Every now and then by instructions of Khal Ankur himself the more important and elite of the cult are instructed to take a fragment from the meteorite and turn it into a powerful weapon or artifact for themselves. Sandswept Pyramid: A large Egyptian-like pyramid that just sits within the drighlands, often under constant hit by sandstorms and the like. the top of the pyramid is believed to have been seen in the desert before the curse, but post-curse the pyramid seemingly rose from the sandy depths… Sandswept Caverns: A large sandstone cavern is believed to lie underneath a great sandy sinkhole, With no real known about exit out of said sinkhole, no one dares to go down and map out these caves. Buried Tomb: Large mostly buried ruins, although some undead seem to mindlessly linger around them no entrance to any larger structure has ever been found. whatever this potential tomb was is most likely either far beyond buried, or time and weather has fully destroyed most of it. The Khaldun: Originally a dark cave filled with jet black sarcophagi that no one dared to open, this horrid place became the main base for the Cult of Khal Ankur, many tents line the outside of the location while the interior has been fortified and turned into a large inner fortress for the cults elite & their god to live in. Oasis: A desert oasis with an abandoned hut near it. Whoever owned it has long since left it but due to how close it is to the khaldun, it could also belong to the cult. Drighlands Highwayman Fortress: This highwayman Fortress sits by the roadside near one of the exits of the desert. on one path their victims are most likely going to be suffering from the scorching desert heat or wounds from the deserts monsters, on the other side of the road the victims could be suffering from the deathly frost. Old Ghost Town: A run down western-style town, long abandoned and just sitting nestled within a mesa valley. Strangely, it appears creatures rarely go near it, leaving the town to just stay deathly empty... Mesa Mines: A still very mineral rich mine that sits within the mesa valley just near the old ghost town. Both the cult of Khal Ankur & an organized miner party of greenwilders sometimes make desert treks to raid the mines for resources but still not all of the place has been touched or even visited yet. Overlook Tower: A rather large tower that sits on the Drighlands Cliffside overlooking the maple ridge, it is believed a very large, very much burning part of the Ash Caverns sits underneath the tower as large fiery fissures surround the place. The tower is also believed to be haunted by Skeletons when the night reaches Midnight but the reason for this is unclear. Aride Abode Inn: A roadside inn that sits in the drighlands, the road is long and tiring which just made this area the perfect business choice for a certain innkeeper.

[emordnilap-fr]

venues i like: training fields, woodland path, forgotten cave (<3), bamboo falls, boreal wood

venues i forget/don't care about: scorched forest, sandswept delta, blooming grove, thunderhead savannah, kelp beds, golem workshop

venues i don't like: waterway, harpy's roost, ghostlight ruins, forbidden portal

venues that are dead to me: REDROCK COVE, rainsong jungle, crystal pools

venues that are love-hate: arena, volcanic vents, mire

there is 100% a difference between venues i don't like, venues i forget about, and venues that are dead to me and that dictates so much of how i treat coli

[peacevine]

potential unique apparel rewards from bounties, including basically every trinket drop you’ve ever wanted to equip to your dragons but couldn’t:

sprangyroo gauntlets

harpy masks

those scythes from the ghostlight ruins corven guys

Wolpertinger Hoodie

wind-up pocketmouse keys

probably a ton of stuff involving various hides and pelts

and feathers, for that matter

those little wispy clouds baku & dreameaters have

those uhhh. shields the new golem workshop miths drop

more weaponry in general. especially the staffs dropped by the sandswept delta gryphons and by the thunderhead savanna raptorik

that weird armor fallout/fallen/snow streaks wear

kitsune sickles

longneck interloper/skirmisher scarves & backpacks

Literally anything worn by longneck gladiators

...anything worn by any beastclan enemy for that matter

malevolent/disoriented spirit mantles

primrose/brown-spotted mith satchels....

[msb-lair]

Coliseum Dividers - Post 6 of 6

[Post 1] [Post 2] [Post 3] [Post 4] [Post 5] [Post 6]

Back in June 2016 I did a set of bio banners and dividers based on the daytime coliseum backgrounds, and have been regularly adding new images every time a new coliseum venue was added (or an existing one revamped).

This is me recreating the post as a series of cross-linked photosets to make the links to the full size (640 pixel width) images easier to grab (by clicking on one of the images in the photoset to see the full-sized view of it, and doing your right-click “Copy image adress” from there). You are also welcome to copy these images and host them somewhere else if you find that more convenient. When attributing these images (not required) please link back to the first post.

Photoset #1:

Arena (Old)

Arena (New)

Bamboo Falls

Blooming Grove

Boreal Wood

Photoset #2:

Crystal Pools

Forbidden Portal

Forgotten Cave (Old)

Ghostlight Ruins

Golem Workshop

Photoset #3:

Harpy’s Roost

Kelp Beds

Mire

Rainsong Jungle

Redrock Cove

Photoset #4:

Sandswept Delta

Scorched Forest

Thunderhead Savannah

Training Fields (Old)

Trainng Fields (New)

Photoset #5:

Volcanic Vents

Waterway (Old)

Waterway (New)

Woodland Path

Forgotten Cave (New) - added 2020-11-14

Photoset #6 (added 2021-10-22):

Mire (New)

Note: as of 2020-06-08 there is now a related set of banners and dividers based on the Scene images, which can be found here.

[thesandqrator]

Full Art: Sivir + Support Cards

Sivir ( Level One | Level Two )

Callous Bonecrusher

Ruin Runner

Sandstone Charger

Landmarks:

Inner Sanctum

Sandswept Tomb

Spells:

Boomerang Blade

Lucky Find

Payday

(Sivir’s) Ricochet

Waking Sands

[frillshark-fr]

hello here’s an easier-to-read version of the swipp trades chart, reduced down to essentially just what you want to know

here it is in text as well for anyone who can’t see the image:

45x Cuckoos & 20x Leporidae Guises: Bamboo Falls, Waterway, Volcanic Vents, Mire

45x Giant st. Caterpillars & 20x Hourglasses: Scorched Forest, Sandswept Delta, Thunderhead Savannah, Volcanic Vents, Boreal Woods

45x Bee Orchids & 20x Weathered Grimoires: Blooming Grove, Redrock Cove, Crystal Pools, Golem Workshop

45x Flying Gurnards & 20x Crystal Balls: Training Fields, Forgotten Cave, Thunderhead Savannah, Kelp Beds

42x Leaf Insects & 18x Mirrors: Training Fields, Boreal Woods, Crystal Pools, Forbidden Portal

42x Living Stones & 18x Nocturne Puppets: Bamboo Falls, Volcanic Vents, Rainsong Jungle, Harpy's Roost, Ghostlight Ruins 

42x Lakebottom Flounders & 18x Multi-Lens Magnifiers: Forgotten Cave, Ghostlight Ruins, Mire, Forbidden Portal

42x Chameleons & 18x Night Flames: Scorched Forest, Rainsong Jungle

[auncyen]

my bd2 progress.

(I’m actually a little further in, mostly through the Sandswept Ruins, though I stopped at the save point for the night)

[mrslittletall]

Bravely Default II Update:  I went to the sandswept ruins after Orpheus (into his very obvious trap). The enemies there were a bit stronger, but we could handle them.  Orpheus himself on the other hand.. You remember the Praline fight? That was like it but worse. Luckily I put sleep immunity on everyone in foresight, especially on Gloria, my White Mage.  Still, he managed to buff up the enemies he charmed around him so well, that especially Elvis was mostly dead on the ground. For some reason Elvis got hit ALL the time, even though Seth put the attention on him.  Well, we made, very close, but we made it. Now we have the bard asterisk and the information that Bernard has the water crystal.

[magpiejay1234]

Day 98.

This time I did the optional mission of beating Aerial Masters with Demyx.

Aerial Master in the Agrabah Gate will be healed by Loudmouths, so you should use Magic against him. Sandswept Ruin Aerial Masters will not be healed, so they will be easy to beat.

After the Aerial Masters, there will be Large Armor in Agrabah Gate, who will also be healed by Loudmouths. After that Sandswept Ruins will have a Zip Slasher, which killed me once. Second time I mostly left Demyx to handle it.

Zip Slasher can be freezed, but it will immediately go into its signature move, and heal itself by sucking your health. So just let Demyx to handle this, as this one has lots of HP. It will give you Combo Tech upon defeat.

The Ice Cream scene features Axel being flustered, which I guess implies his emotions are slowly returning to him.

This is technically the first mission with Demyx, and he generally uses his Sitar as a whacking stick. Weird that this is in what are supposed to be Roxas's solo missions, but I guess Nomura couldn't write a story.

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Deadfire, day 5.

Looking at everyone’s skill loadout, I think it’s time for me to bring Maia on the bathhouse spying quest for the first time. This ought to be good.

Sadly for me, that still wasn’t enough Diplomacy points to get Quarno to talk, and Maia didn’t have anything to say for herself. Welp.

To the Watershapers’ Guild, then. I think I’ve picked a party with enough Metaphysics between them to do the thing.

Thing done. You’re welcome, Scyorielaphas. And Onekaza.

And apparently we’re taking a trip to Sayuka before we take our newfound knowledge about Yseyr and Rivan to Dunnage. Welp. Get over here, Serafen.

For a second there I was afraid I didn’t have enough information to do Serafen’s quest right, but, no apparently getting Castol’s quest to talk to Furrante is enough? Or something?

Aww, thanks for the hat, Serafen. Even if Anlaf can’t wear it.

Hey, Edér, want a hat? It’s a pretty nice hat.

I don’t love killing the bog druids, but the one time I killed Okaya instead I hated myself even more, so...

“Can you make him target who he poops on? ‘Cause I got someone in mind.” Does that someone perhaps have tentacles for hair, Xoti? Because I know you’re not much enamored of our resident watershaper.

...I mean, Cignath Mór is right here, may as well do it. Come on, Aloth, I’ll be needing your wall spells.

Kraken bagged in one try, though a lot of injuries were picked up. Oof.

Oh, that’s where Dorudugan is, not the other place I was avoiding (I think that one might be Hauani o Whe). Game, how the entire tap-dancing fuck does a megaboss only rate one skull?

In conclusion, nope nope nope nope nope nope nope. Off to the sandswept ruins, which are only mundanely annoying.

Godsdammit babies no don’t step on—*headdesk*

I’ve been getting very little use out of Rekke this playthrough, because the last thing this party needs is another melee character who doesn’t contribute support or crowd control abilities. Which makes me very sad, for reasons of Rekke is adorable and I like him. Time to take him out to mop up some bounties.

And more in the morning, it’s late.