Sazar Sazar

The Spire

City— Deep in the Sazar mycelium forests, a single spike of obsidian stone spears the sky. At the gate you will be handed a blindfold. Do not remove it. Trust the guides to get you where you need to be, then leave. The games of Sazar Sazar are not easy to understand, and violating the impenetrable rules can have dire consequences.

The People

Two humanoids dressed in flamboyant and brightly colored outfits. The person on the left has dark skin marked with scars on their shoulder, and is dressed in a green and yellow robe with purple or pink accents, and baggy blue pants. They are wearing gold-tipped soft boots, and their face is hidden by a large blue-green hood, decorated with yelow accents. They are wearing lots of gold jewlery around their arms, wrists, hands, neck, and belt. In their hands is a small purple cloth. The person on the right has pale blue-silver skin, and is dressed in a smilar outfit to the person on the left, but with bright blue instead of green. They are holding a strange golden object in their hand.

Sazarians have lived in the Spire since before the last kings were deposed. A reclusive people, the Sazarians have established an incredibly complex society within Sazar Sazar that is nigh incomprehensible to outsiders. Every citizen of Sazar Sazar is engaged in hundreds of complex games at all times—Games of social deduction, games of skill, reflexes, luck, and memory. Games that test every imaginable aspect of the mind and body. These games often overlap or influence each other—a point scored in one game is used as a game piece in another, a foul committed in one game forms the basis of another game.

The results of these games are, somehow, tallied at the end of every month. Victors are rewarded with feasts thrown in their honor, temporary elevation to the coveted Games Master position, and other social benefits. Losers are celebrated in more personal ceremonies held in living rooms and dorms across the Spire. Citizens and visitors can opt out of the games by donning a specially embroidered blindfold when moving through the central section of the spire.

The “meaning” behind the games, if one exists, has never been fully understood by researchers, in part because of the relative remoteness and insular nature of the community. They happily welcome visitors to the Spire, and will even allow them to engage in the games upon request, but navigating the maelstroms that surround the Sazar islands is an incredibly deadly task that keeps many away. Those that do make landfall must then find their way through the thick forest of mushrooms and mycelium to find Sazar Sazar itself. Needless to say, few make the journey, and fewer return to tell the tale.

Local Monster

Sazar Sazar boasts a guardian Monster by the name of Kul-lulu, who resembles something partway between a dove and a gorilla. Thick arms coiled with ropes of muscle allow the Monster to easily scale the mushrooms and the Spire itself, while its enormous wings enable it to glide gracefully above the forest canopy. Visitors to the city say Sazarians have an unusually distant relationship with their Monster; it often leaves for months or years at a time, and it rarely spends much time in its nest at the peak of the Spire.

Notable Sublocations

  • Main Street—Every one of Sazar Sazar’s hundred floors consists of dormitories, homes, workshops, and kitchens surrounding a wide public gathering space. These gathering spaces connect the Spire’s floors via a series of stairways, lifts, ladders, slides, waterfalls, and specially grown trees carefully cultured for climbability. These central spaces each have a unique name indicating the sorts of games played in them, but are collectively known as Main Street. These spaces act as arenas facilitating the games, and they are custom-designed around the particular set of games being played on that level.
  • Kul-lulu’s Rest—At the peak of the Spire, the simian dove Kul-lulu makes her nest. Thousands of dried mushroom stalks form the walls, with dried caps forming a leathery ground. As well as a resting area for the Monster, the nest also serves as a banquet area for the city’s citizens, as well as a council hall, voting location, and, rarely, courtroom.
  • Scratchwall—One of three levels of the spire not dedicated purely to the playing of games, Scratchwall instead documents every single winner of every single game ever played in the Spire. Through means unknown, the names across the walls will automatically change to match the identity of the winners, and some visitors say that the citizens are somehow able to locate winners by communing with their name on the walls.
  • The Mycelium Forest—One of the most unexplored regions of Ald-Amura, the forest is vast, encompassing the vast majority of the island chains. Sazarians tell stories of the forest as a mythical, living creature, with secret tunnels connecting a thousand tiny villages throughout the island, though these tunnels have never been found.

What Happens When You Arrive

  1. Ku-lulu has laid an egg, and the people of Sazar Sazar begin playing the game of their lives.
  2. Luminescent spores blanket the area like a snowstorm, slowly building in ferocity before threatening to utterly consume the island.
  3. The False Gold pours from the mushrooms surrounding the city, with Kul-lulu nowhere to be found.
  4. It becomes eminently clear that every citizen of the Spire has been turned into a cat.
  5. High, high above the Spire, one of the ancient flying cities of kings has appeared, painted black. Its chains rattle in the night.
  6. A mysterious new tunnel has appeared in the network of underground roads connecting the villages of Sazar together.