Nostalgic Bhakoru
The Desert Death Spirit is a female that appears to individuals as they cross the sands. When one is at the brink of death, she will appear to the traveler in a mirage. While she can appear in any number of outfits, there is one quality about the spirit that always remains the same: She never speaks. The spirit always wears a dusk mask over her mouth and refuses to say a word.
As the death spirit, it is her job to tell an individual if they are going to survive the trip across the dunes. In the mirage, she will always offer the traveler an item. If the spirit offers you a feather, she is fortelling a bright future and survival. If she offers you a glass or jug of water, you are expected to drink the liquid. Drinking the water from the river Styx fortells a speedy death, but a peaceful journey into the underworld.
The Desert Death Spirit does not appear to people who die violently. She is also not a reaper to take them across the divide between life and death. However, the Desert Death Spirit was still very feared. The ruins tell of ceremonies to chase away the death spirit to prevent one from dying. Individuals were encouraged to come to this very ruin to place offerings on the shrine. The puzzle pieces on the table were used as a way to distract the spirit, as it was rumored that she enjoyed solving the enigmas.
There is no name for the spirit, but in the spaces where a name would be, the tiles spell the Saheric word for "Reserved." The guide explains that those who carved the text were probably too fearful to put the spirit's real name; instead they used the "Reserved" term as some sort of place holder, as if to replace it with the real name at some later point in time...
Though you don't have many supplies with you, the guide suggests that you leave a few offerings and mix up the puzzle board pieces. Maybe this way you all will manage to make it out of this little mess and not see the spirit in a mirage any time soon.
After some searching around the ruins, your guide has found enough miscellaneous bits of rope to rig a way out. After you climb up into the safety of the room above, you glance back down below. For a split moment, you could swear you saw a shadow moving around down there.
And just before you leave the ruins, you faintly hear a sound... was that... was that stone sliding against stone?
Saheric Ruins and Images from Subeta.net
Background Image created by me,
Lexx.Profile coding, image collaboration, and story by me,
Lexx.
