Expeditions in the Land of the Dead (IC)

[Tethys 13]

The Land of the Dead is filled with bounteous wealth, and you can only gather a fraction of it from the comparative safety of your outposts. Finding more will require you to embark on expeditions, brave natural and unnatural hazards, or perhaps interact with your neighbours, as allies or targets.

Recounted here are the tales of expeditions in the Land of the Dead, quests to gain wealth for your outpost and nation. They conclude each month, with your acquired resources determined by the action taken using the below rules, though you are of course free to write posts of expeditions for other purposes, such as mapping, historical study or diplomacy! However, each month a hazard will erupt in the Land of the Dead, and your expeditions cannot overcome them without your input.

Each tile of your outpost on the map contains one branch of that outpost, and provides you with a resource. You can find the resources, which ones your nation has access to within its outpost, examples of what you can turn them into, and what your nation has in its stockpile here. If you have multiple branches of a resource, you can label them A, B etcetera.

Each month you will have the opportunity for each of your branches to Gather, Venture, Search, or Raid, described below:

• Gather: The branch gathers its determined resource. This is the default, and only requires a RP post if there is a hazard that directly threatens your outpost, such as a Deathshroud Assault.
  If you choose to write it out, you would say "(Resource) branch gathers its resource", e.g. "Ink branch gathers its resource" or "Ink Branch A gathers its resource".
• Venture: The branch goes out to see what it can find, returning with spoils - if it can. You choose a zone from Central, Coastal, or Inland, and at the end of the month the branch returns one random resource from that zone. This will often require a RP post describing the adventure and how it overcomes the month's hazard.
  To assign a branch to this purpose, you would write it like this: "(Resource) branch embarks on a (Central/Coastal/Inland) venture", e.g. "Ink branch embarks on an Inland venture".
• Search: Two branches collaborate to find a particular resource. You choose any resource from the list, and at the end of the month the two branches return one unit of that resource between them. This will always require an RP post, describing in rough or specific terms how the expedition tracks down the resource, overcoming the month's hazard.
  To assign a branch to this purpose, you would write it like this: "(Resource) and (Resource) branches search for (Chosen Resource)", e.g. "Ink and Sapphire branches search for Iron", or "Ink branches A and B search for Salt".
• Raid: The branch attempts to loot another outpost for its resources. You choose another nation, and at the end of the month the branch returns one of that nation's stockpiled resources at random, with resources they have greater stock of being more likely to be acquired. This is more complex than the other three options, and thus has additional rules. This always requires a RP post - if the chosen nation does not have an outpost description, the post only needs to describe how your expedition gets to the target, which will require obeying the laws of the realm (e.g. no bringing greater technology to a lower technology zone, an acknowledgement of the swift deterioration of materials brought from your nation rather than gathered within the Land of the Dead, etcetera). If the nation does have an outpost description (e.g. Guhrayen's), the RP post will additionally be required to detail how your nation overcomes its defences, paying proper respect and attention to the nation targeted. If you want to create defences for your outpost, create an outpost description thread, and if you want ideas for obstacles, you can always check out our Dungeon Delver contest!
  To assign a branch to this purpose, you would write it like this: "(Resource) branch raids (target nation)", e.g. "Ink branch raids Tethys 13".
  If you want to opt out of participating in raids between outposts, you can write "(your nation)'s outpost enters lockdown", e.g. "Tethys 13's outpost enters lockdown". You will be unable to raid other outposts or have yours raided starting the following month, until you choose to have it lifted by writing "(your nation)'s outpost exits lockdown", which will end the lockdown starting the following month, preventing raiding the same month your outpost exits lockdown.

Hazards
Hazards have been mentioned at numerous points in these rules. They are the natural and unnatural threats and disasters that arise each month, from sandstorms and heat waves to restless spirits and Deathshroud attacks. At the start of the month an official post will be made, covering resources gained, outposts in lockdown, and the monthly hazard, with a brief description and a list of expedition types affected.
A listed expedition type will require a RP post describing how your expedition overcomes the hazard, which may come in the form of something as simple as a report:

Example

The expeditioners evaded the Deathshrouds by posing as corpses themselves, remaining still until they passed by...

Or something as involved as a prose account:

Example

Murp Milquetoast held their breath, remaining absolutely still in the broken grave beside the bones of its occupant. They heard the prowling, awkward gait of the monsters move past, talons clicking on stone and bandages flapping in the dry wind. Slowly, the horrible sounds began to fade, and Murp seized the opportunity to escape the tomb and go, seeing their comrades breaking from their own cover to follow, leaving the nightmarish Deathshrouds to their morbid patrol...

[Tethys 13]

Expedition Update: October 2026

All outposts Gathered resources last month.
All outposts are considered in Lockdown.

Hazard: Restless Dead
Affecting Ventures and Searches.
The dead rise, and this is their land. The dead rise, and they do not accept interlopers. Ghosts soar the skies in great clouds, before diving to chill the blood of those who walk the sands. From those sands, bones and dessicated skin shifts and stirs, as skeletons and mummies emerge from their tombs to roam the deserts in bands and hordes, eager for newcomers to join their number. By might, stealth or appeasement, it will take great effort to evade them and still gain something.

[Tethys 13]

Tethys 13's outpost exits lockdown.
Mercury Branch and Ink Branch D Search for Papyrus.
Ink Branches C and B Search for Papyrus.
Ink Branch A and Marble Branch Search for Papyrus.
Salt Branches A and B Search for Cloth.
Salt Branch C and Sapphire Branch Search for Cloth.

The Tethysi have an urgent mission before them. Thanks to Tethysian Narratechnology, they can manifest effective (if often temporary) tools using items of symbolism, with writing being a premier example. The Tethysi outpost is blessed by an abundance of Severisen's Ink, but nothing from the Land of the Dead to write it with. Thus, they must acquire Koth's Cloth and Syberis' Papyrus.

Lo and Dankaxaknad lead Mercury Branch and Ink Branch D on their quest. When the clouds of ghosts descend, Lo's team conjures a stream of spirits, which the ghosts join and begin to follow safely away. Dankaxaknad suggests an alternate use, and so the stream is instead guided to follow the ground, roaming over the dunes ahead of the party, swirling in circuits aroudn their camp when they rest for the night. A member of the Mercury Branch, Tonn'lavr, is the first to hear the rustling of dry reeds in the ghostly wind, and the party heads in that direction to find a field of papyrus, which the necroboteers are able to harvest. They return 2nd fastest.

Dug'jep and Doz lead Ink Branches B and C, and opt for a novel approach. The necroboteers dig into the sand with their constructs, while the shelletons and shelliches sculpt it into a bubble and lay out a thread behind them to ensure they can find their way back. Their progress is interrupted as they inadvertently uncover a buried tomb, and bodies from within emerge at the disturbance. While Doz's team holds off the attackers, Dug'jep's hasitly repair the damage to the stone, guiding many of the corpses back to their rest. Those destroyed during the attack are taken by the necroboteers to replace their own constructs, which were eroding away from digging through the sand. Finally the group comes across the dead roots of papyrus, and begins plucking them from below. They return last, their method the slowest.

Teth and Sogo lead Marbe Branch and Ink Branch A, and have the cleanest time. They study the moving waves of undead for a while, then their crew of necroboteers gathers as a shambling horde, moving with careful slowness to mimic the skeletons of the desert. Though their progress is gradual, the undead are undisturbed by their passage, and after long exploration and mapping, they eventually come across a field of papyrus and subtly gather it while moving through. They return 4th.

Doheqho and Ancev lead Salt Branches A and B, and throw caution to the wind. Their group of Shelliches enter spectral form, racing across the sky. They disturb several clouds of ghosts, which sense their difference and pursue, becoming a race. Thankfully they come across a zone of cloth quite quickly, and descend to it, only to realise they had not prepared a means to return with it. They work together to craft a barrier to keep the ghosts at bay, but the activity attracts a horde of skeletons. Doheqho comes up with a wild solution, as they gather the threads into a ball and bond it with ectoplasm, before rolling all the way home, arriving first but earning the ire of the resource managers who have to clean their haul.

Nuf and Myonoym lead Salt Branch C and Sapphire Branch, and take the longest to set off, not solely because their planning session took place in the beautiful sapphire waters. They collate the scouting reports from their predecessors and determine the topographical features of the zone they are looking for, and receive messages back of the threats inbetween. They narrow their destination down to a particular band, and determine to move via the waters until they reach the optimal landing point to reach it. They compose their party of a balance of necroboteers, shelliches and shelletons, with a number of the necroboteers collectively creating a whale construct with a chamber of bone to hold their prize when they acquire it. The Shelletons feel the shifting of souls in the environment to predict when threats will arise, and the Shelliches use their adaptability to counter those threats and carry messages between the groups. With that, they are able to avoid and redirect the undead groups, reach their destination, and return with a bounty of high-quality threads of cloth, returning 3rd but earning the praise of the resource managers.

[Guhrayen]

OOC: Open to diplomacy, trade, expeditions crossing paths, etc.!

Narseh, Commander of the Guhrayen Outpost's First Expedition Forces

For many moons, Naresh, the seasoned commander of the Guhrayen Outpost's First Expedition Forces, had steeled himself well against the endless difficulties that the Se-pāy Nišēm's leader, the Thrice-Hallowed Musalu, had asked him and his men to endure in the pursuit of the outpost's establishment in the foreign realm they found themselves in. It was a miracle of the Vestige that the very winds of the land did not seem to (as of yet) strip the flesh from their bones, given its rapid decomposition of everything else the airs of the place seemed to touch, from foodstuffs to the hulls of wooden canoes painstakingly carried through the portal linking this place to the homeland. The primary reward of the sacrifices they had so far made, seemingly, was the Thrice-Hallowed's investment in a mysterious Court of powerful beings who met in the shadows of great, otherworldly pyramids memorializing the current and past rulers of these realms off to the East of the Temple-Citadel at the heart of their settlements.

Not that this was all. There were whispers of riches outside of the confines of the outpost. Even within the boundaries they'd stumbled into establishing thus far at great human cost, they'd found great rubies and sapphires, as well as ample building materials, from which the structures of the outpost and its walled defenses had been as hastily made as possible. 'Hastily' seemed almost too gentle a word for the fury at which he and the other members of the First Expedition Forces had taken to building, given the necessity of the defensive projects; their lord was not able to be available at all places at all times and when the realm itself seemed to conspire to expel them, as it did now, spewing forth malevolent spirits and corpses to attack all who crossed their paths and endangering merchants, adventurers, and the link to the mainland's portal, only iron armor and spears forged from the native materials could be relied upon to repulse them.

With the restless dead repulsed and Musalu now returned to hold the outpost with their Honour Guard, Naresh and his few hundred warriors now spread across the lands with their iron arms and theurgist companions to escort eleven resource gathering missions in the hopes of returning with what the outpost could not provide, whether it be bark, copper, nitre, or salt. The settlement was badly in need of non-construction resources, especially as to begin something resembling lack of total reliance on imported foods, which was causing an ever-growing strain on the mainland's agricultural output.

Effects.
Guhrayen's outpost exits lockdown.
Cormac's Sandstone Branch Ventures Inland
Cormac's Tin Branch Ventures Inland
Dalimbar's Cursed Clay Branch Ventures Central
Earth's Limestone (A) Branch Ventures Central
Earth's Limeston (B) Branch Ventures Central
Malphe's Marble Branch Ventures Central
Salem's Ruby Branch Ventures Central
Skies' Sapphire Branch Ventures Central
Zaolat's Iron Branch Ventures Central
Syberis' Papyrus Branch Ventures Coastal
Tim's Cursed Coal Branch Ventures Coastal

[Tethys 13]

Expedition Update: October 2026

Tethys 13 acquired 3 Papyrus and 2 Cloth from Searches.
Guhrayen acquired 1 Diamond, 1 Bark, 2 Copper, 1 Lapis Lazuli, 1 Stardust, 1 Glass, 1 Tin, 1 Mercury, 1 Charcoal, and 1 Amber from Ventures.
All other outposts Gathered resources.

Tethys 13 and Guhrayen are out of Lockdown.
All other outposts are considered in Lockdown.

Hazard: Extreme Temperatures
Affecting Ventures and Searches.
The conditions of the Land of the Dead are pitiless at the best of times, and merciless now. By noon the heat is as punishing as an oven, and by midnight the cold threatens to freeze the air. Making any progress in these conditions will take patience, hardiness, and preferably something more than bare feet to get around with.