The Purple Sands

“If you go to the Purple Sands - beware, beware, beware.Flesh obeys what the dark demands - beware, beware, beware.”- Tanar’ri Rhyme

It is a place of unnatural fecundity, a place of life unbounded, and of bodies twisted by unholy vitality. Here physical form is fluid and constantly mutating. Its swells and changes and merges at the slightest stimulus, leaving those who venture here as abominations so transformed that only a handful can survive. It is a mad place, but not the madness of balmies screaming in the Gatehouse. It is the madness of shifting bodies, alien minds, and the almost utter breakdown of natural laws.The Chant

There is a layer of the Abyss is known as The Purple Sands. Its lord is unknown, or perhaps the place is unclaimed or unclaimable; for even most Abyssal spawn give the place a wide berth.

Only the barest mauve light illuminates the darkness, revealing shifting sands and clumps of fleshy vegetation as unique as they are obscene. In such surrounds most of the plant life is carnivorous, or feeds off such warped nutrients as darkness, fear, or the sound of agonised screams. Things move beneath the sand, wretched limbs occasionally breaking the surface only to twitch and spasm as if freedom pains them, the rest of them remaining thankfully obscured. In the distance, the occasional sight of an aberration - extreme creatures even by the standards of their kind.

Some say the Purple Sands are only a few millennia old, others claim that they date back from before even the Blood War began. Its exact purpose is unknown but from time to time new breeds of aberration are discovered by brave Tanar’ri explorers and seeded across the planes. Many consider the creation of these beasts to be its primary purpose, but the Purple Sands also serve as a dumping ground for prisoners who deserve a particularly tortuous death. There are rumours too of treasures buried there in ages past, by crazed Gods and long-forgotten Abyssal Lords.

The Purple Sands seem to fulfil a strange role in the minds of those who dwell in the Abyss. It exists as a place of myth, where legendary truths and artefacts might be found, and where Tanar’ri heroes can go questing for power and spiritual enlightenment. It is a fantastic world where the normal rules are cast out and wonders and revelations confront those who dare its shores. The Sands feature in a number of Tanar’ri tales and legends, and its role seems something akin to that of a fairytale land, similar to the way many Primers view the world of the Fey Court.

The Dark

The sands are a twisted laboratory and a breeding ground for abominations. It has no master, or if it does the Lord is so mutated that it is now mindless and powerless and all but consumed by his realm. There are still those who serve the Purple Sands itself however.

The Harvesters are Tanar’ri who maintain the few portals leading in and out of the layer, and who occasionally patrol the Sands looking for useful new aberrations, poisons, and diseases. A few even meditate upon the sands, soaking in the insanity of the place as the true incarnation of their beliefs.

The Harvesters are not immune to the Sands’ effects, and each is inevitably marked by the mutations of the layer - or scarred by the fire, acid, and holy water used to cauterise their wounds. They are pained and pitiful creatures, but dutiful nonetheless. Unusually for Tanar'ri, they are also given to extreme caution - almost pacifism - becuase of the Sands’ effects on wounded bodies.

In many ways, the Sands resemble a slightly less insane version of the Far Realm, and its purpose is linked to that strange dimension. The layer is an experiment into the effects of the Far Realm, and a testing ground designed to mimic its effects as far as the tanar’ri dare. The production of poisons, diseases, and aberrations are really only a side effect.

The few Tanar’ri who know this consider it their duty to research the Far Realm, claiming that sooner or later there will be war between its reality and ours. When that time comes, the Tanar’ri say that the Abyss shall provide the greatest weapons tailored to that conflict, and have plans and troops ready to not only fight against it but to invade.

Lay of the Land

The Sands are a bubble, lying on the inside of an irregular sphere some thousand miles in circumference. Exact measurements are impossible because of the shifting terrain, which seems to curl up and fold around itself, so that a full days’ travel might still leave a traveller within sight of his camp, or an arrow shot at a man only yards away might travel ten times that distance before reaching the target. Travellers are advised to stick close together lest they find themselves suddenly miles apart.

The diffuse purple light has no apparent source, and never dulls or brightens. Sand dunes are the only terrain. Here and there the monotony is broken by a ridge of calcified bones, a web of mutated plants, or by lakes of protomatter – creatures so changed that they have broken down completely, turning into a slick clinging liquid. The lakes are a powerful catalyst for the change, and the spawning ground of many aberrations. Those foolish enough to expose themselves to the slime are transformed even more rapidly than normal, becoming aberrations (or simply dead) within minutes rather than days.

Despite the almost unsurvivable dangers of the sands, a settlement somehow exists: Pax Saburra. Named after the traditional greeting of those beings still intelligent and sane who meet upon the Purple Sands, this anthill sits upon a plateau of petrified bones, washed daily with acids to keep even the smallest growth at bay.

A few crafted iron portals also dot the Sands, like giant croquet-hoops. These are used by the Harvesters to come and go among the Sands. There seem to have been at least three dozen portals originally, but only about two dozen still working; the rest have been damaged or destroyed by the inhabitants.

Magic

The Sands are pretty well cut off from the rest of the universe, but their twisting laws of the layer and the unreliable nature of the Abyss means that occasional breaches are inevitable. The Harvesters and other Abyssal forces contain such incidents fanatically, sealing the convergence with one of the iron gates described above.

Spells can gain a body entry if he’s mad enough to try, but most Planar-breaching magic usually fails utterly when attempted from the Purple Sands, they just cause the local fabric of the layer to twist and fold around itself even more, creating additional strange shadows and shifted distances. Summoning magic is also affected, and usually only brings forth local aberrations to serve the caster. When someone uses either kind of the above magic roll 1d20: On a 20 it functions normally. On a roll of 1, a random magical effect results (use the Wild Magic table from PSCS, with a caster level of 0).

Attempts to magically displace, phase, or use shadow-based magic (including items) send the character into one of the other ‘layers within the layer’ that surround each physical space of the Sands. Most of the time this results in just a feeling of displacement – with brighter or dimmer light and strange noises or smells that only that character can sense, but they may occasionally find themselves in another place entirely.

The DM can select the effect or roll 1d10 on the table below:

Most Planar-breaching magic usually fails utterly when attempted from the Purple Sands, and Summoning magic only brings forth the local aberrations to serve. There is only a 1 in 20 chance of such magic functioning normally.

Other magic works relatively normally except for the weird distances of the Sands. Range is the most common factor that determines whether a spell functions as planned. For every 10yds of range a spell must travel, there is a 1% chance that the distance effectively shrinks or extends by 1d100 x 1d100 yards. The same rules apply to area of effect, and even mundane ranged attacks.

The Curse of the Sands

The curse of the Purple Sands affects all creatures regardless of species, even undead (but not animated bones if they are seared clean). It also strikes plants, and on occasion can suddenly afflict even dead wood and cloth. Injury is the normal catalyst for change, potentially striking from even the most minor cut or bruise: Characters must make a Fortitude save with a DC of 5 + the Hit Points/Statistics lost. Only the hardiest creatures can survive for long, but even they develop minor changes such as malformed limbs, extra organs, or patches of scales and tentacles.

Once infected, a character’s wound begins to transform, consuming the old limb and replacing it with something a random appendage in a number of days equal to the victim’s CON score. The appearance and powers (if any) of the limb vary:

Type of New Growth: roll 1d6

Appearance of Limb: roll 1d10

Further injuries to the area cause a new infection to develop alongside the original, in a twisted amalgamation of forms. Once the limb is completely transformed, the character must make a new Fort Save (DC 20) or the transformation will continue to a new area of the body (roll again for the type). The new limb may or may not gain any appropriate special powers or qualities, at the DM’s discretion.

Eventually the accumulation of mutations turns the character into a new a new breed of aberration. Occasionally the breed stabilises, producing a few generations of similar creatures. It is these creatures that the harvesters take for study.

Inhabitants

The inhabitants of the Purple Sands are of two breeds: Those still clinging to their former race, and those who have evolved into unique and terrible aberrations or pseudonatural beasts. Most encounters are with solitary individuals or small groups.

Almost everyone on the sands is insane to one degree or another, but most observe the Pax Saburra (‘peace of the sands’), an agreement of non-violence and mutual cooperation against the dangers of the layer.

Lost Modrons – No one knows exactly when the Lost Modrons arrived in the Purple Sands, but many guess it was during the last March. There were over a thousand of them then, but now only a couple of hundred remain. While their organic parts long ago mutated to slime or crawled away, their purely mechanical skeletons somehow continue to walk the Sands, purpose long since forgotten even by themselves. They have become feral creatures, brutal yet mindless, but useful if a body’s purpose coincides with their own. Most of the Lost Modrons seem to have once been monodrones, but each has cannibalised various materials and others of its kind in order to survive, leaving them almost as misshapen as the organic inhabitants of the layer.

Bestiary

Nomad Tent – These creatures move in small packs, and resemble the tents of desert nomads. Closer examination reveals them as having struts of bone and flaps made of leather; gruesome perhaps but not so unusual in the Abyss.

The truth is far worse: The ‘tents’ are actually creatures, their interior resembling something crossed between a spider and an octopus. The tents wait patiently on the sands (usually near portals), and try to subtly position themselves in front of travellers. If anyone is foolish enough to venture inside a tent, the creature folds itself around its prey, tearing them apart with tooth-like hooks.

Swaddlings – large furry beetles with the faces of newborn babes and a rolled up tongue for a tail. Grotesque but harmless and rather affectionate. Their tonguetails are safe to eat, but contain a mildly hallucinagenic poison (many inhabitants distill this as a recreational drug).

Tallfish – Herds of Tallfish dot the sands, one of the Sands’ few stable breeds of creature. It creeps along on its roots, has the body of an upthrust fish, and nine tiny waving scorpion tails for arms. The creature lives in a state of permanent agony, giving off a low moan that causes something akin to vertigo in those nearby. Tallfish is usually edible if thuroughly cooked.

The Writhing Fields – These plants resemble burning intestines, although the flames are black and cold. The locals use tethered harpoons to spear and retrieve the fleshy tendrils, which are among the few edible things that don't cause immediate infection.

Locations

Harvester Camps – These temporary camps always surround an active portal off the layer, but their remains can be seen around almost all the gates, broken and half-sunken into the sands. Each manned camp is ringed by three hundred yards of cold iron caltrops, and guarded by concentric rings of skeleton warriors. A mesh of steel protects each camp from aerial attackers and burrowing foes, within it is a handful of tents, their walls of bronze beaten parchment thin. Specimens are kept in steel cages or air-tight chests nearby, handled by golems. A handful of Harvesters oversee each camp, while other roam the nearby wastes.

Native guides are sometimes used by the Harvesters, but are treated like leashed dogs, not local experts. Sometimes traders also come, bringing small samples of local matter in exchange for equipment.

Pax Saburra - This settlement is really little more than a hamlet, its inhabitants dwelling in caves. No leather or furs are used here, only the most dead dry wood. Other accoutrements are made of blackened bone or crudely beaten metal.

The inhabitants eke out an existence here in various states of transformation, their most obvious mutations burned or cut away. The settlement is ruled by a ruthless but otherwise surprisingly benevolent Babau nicknamed Patch, his body is adorned with numerous circular burns where spawning corruption has been removed. His welcoming grin awaits travellers who climb the bone steps to the village, and he personally sears any suspicious growths from their bodies before allowing them in.

Pax Saburra exists to help the survival of its inhabitants (exiles, condemned prisoners, Harvesters) and to aid study of the Sands. Visitors are technically welcome, but anyone who cannot demonstrate their (relative) sanity and immediate usefulness is killed; their possessions taken and their bones removed and bleached for use by the inhabitants. A few necessities such as basic equipment and carefully prepared food and water are available here, but prices are high. Barter is the normal method of exchange - coins are only valuable for their metal, gems only if they can be chipped and made sharp. 

Among the inhabitants of Pax Saburra are a small colony of Guvnors and a small party of Chaosites, here studying the phenomena of the Purple Sands. Both groups are made up of kidnapped individuals dumped into the Sands by the Harvesters. Neither has yet provided enough insight to ‘earn’ their freedom, but the two groups have at least put aside their differences to study the layer – it seems that even the Kriegstantz loses its ardour among the horrors of the alien dunes.

The Clinging Sea - This ‘sea’ is actually the largest lake of slime-like living liquid in the Purple Sands. There is no life in the sea, for it is in essence a single colony of countless minute organisms. It has no tides or waves - it shudders and creeps instead.

A few kinds of ooze creature manage to survive in the Clinging Sea, and there are even those who prey on them; sailors who navigate the living liquid in the upturned shells of giant insects. Known as Coraclers (a guild rather than a race), these travellers and traders ply their wares at the shoreline, before retreating back into their mysterious domain at the sea's centre. Somewhere in its heart it is said they have a floating village made of lashed-together rafts, where they trade such goods as they acquire and – so rumour has it - use a secret portal off the Purple Sands. No shore dweller has ever seen the place however. It may not even exist.

Campaign Use

Only a madman would actually want to go to the Purple Sands, but there are a number of ways that the PCs could end up there. The most likely is that they need information from one of the prisoners condemned there, or an artefact they have learned lies buried within. Such characters would be wise to deal with the Harvesters in such a case, although dealing with half mad mutated tanar’ri has a danger all its own. A well informed and equipped party can survive for quite a while on the Sands, but remember that normal spells can get a party onto the layer, but not out again.

Of course, the PCs could also end up on the Sands outside their own volition. The Harvesters kidnap scholars (particularly those with an interest in the Far Realm) fairly regularly to dump into the Sands with a promise that they can earn their way out by cracking its secrets. PCs might also be thrown in if they’re a particularly annoying thorn in the side of some Abyssal Lord, or offend their captors while prisoners in the Abyss for some other reason.

Visiting The Harvesters

Parties can also visit the Harvesters without ever setting foot on the Sands, probably to learn more about the Far Realm. PCs might also find unusual (and dangerous) employment fighting alongside these Tanar'ri against a breach that has forced its way out into the Abyss, or at a portal to the Far Realm itself. Harvester guides and equipment are likely to be among the best available for such expeditions.

Playing Through a Purge

Being trapped in the Sands is bad, but not as bad as being trapped there when a Purge is going on. Harvesters would move to occupy and fortify as many working gates as possible, then spread out to sear and destroy everything that moves with powerful magic and an army of constructs and undead. Characters might find themselves fighting a desperate battle for survival alongside very unusual allies – like Patch and the Sands’ aberrations – against the assault, which would probably be a constant fighting retreat, with guerrilla attacks against Harvester bases and a desperate search for escape or a place to hide – perhaps even a mass invasion of the Carved One itself.