Name: Quicksand
Race: L'na Dawn
Aspects: Body 7, Mind 5, Soul 3; Sex: Female aspect; Ht: 7' (at shoulder); Wt: 2000 lbs.
Character Description/Notes: Born of the wild stretches of sand and sun-burnt stone, Quicksand lives as free and fierce as the desert where Ai birthed her. She loved the hidden beauty and vitality the scorched land veiled, her eyes attuned to notice each mole, bat, and scorpion hidden in the shadows of the day. Quicksand rejoiced in dancing duels with sand sprites and racing other dawns over the vast plains, the constant cycle of blazing sun and frosty eve a continual procession of unquenchable life. She knew nothing better than basking in the warmth of her world, riding a draft in tune with the melodic thrum of Ai.

Nor would she forget that sumptuous song when its memory haunted her on the dry winds of Apoc earth. She remembered the cool draft that sent the smaller animals scurrying to holes in the ground, how even they sensed the futility of their instincts as the vengeful dust storm rose across the horizon. Quicksand had ascended from a glorious nap to see the extent of the coming sirocco, she discovered the behemoth wall of grit and wind rose as high as she could climb and extended to swallow the world in hailing sand. Accustomed to the might of a burning sand blanket, the L'na covered herself in a sheath of stone and air, plunging toward the earth to weather the storm in her cave. She raced across the desert plains like a streak of orange lightning; however, strangely, the bulwark of dirt raced faster, catching the L'na before she could clear the distance to the mountain peaks ahead, pounding the dawn between the worlds and into a bitter, truly deserted land. Quicksand awoke to see the dust settle over her and a world unlike Ai, a place devoid of the thriving tune of life. She had tumbled into Apoc-earth.

The echo of Ai strongly throbbed in the liberty-loving L'na's heart, causing her to think of home and life she had lost. Disconnected from the vital presence, the L'na's primal nature arose to bond with her intense persona, forming a severity and fierceness few could equal or contend. Quicksand adorned her form with the natural predatory forms of the world she remembered, fashioning herself into a pinnacle hunter. She hunted along the nadir of the broken land, meditating on her lost home and how to inflame the spark of Ai inside her into a firestorm to either return or become a new Ai apart from her world. Thus, her powers of mind slowly began to parallel the potency of her muscled body, cunning and ferocity decimated opponents she encountered. Thus, the wide region she wandered became known as the Sirocco's Swath, a place where the queen of the dust devils burned her rage against those who crossed her path. Only the unfortunate, foolish or fearless dare venture into an area where she has rumored to tread.

However, in the recent years of her hermitage, Quicksand discovered the ocean and a place she did not expect. While she despised the loathsome and clumsy two legs, she had found a L'na who enjoyed their company. In fact, one who had welcomed the beleaguered High-bred and acted as their guardian. Intrigued and disgusted, Quicksand made frequent flights to watch the curiosity, and even a few visits on occasion to talk with the gregarious dawn named Greenslick. The two formed a tenuous relationship, Quicksand wary of any place that offered healing away from Ai. Yet, the dawn could not shake the desire for community, the memories of life on Ai and all the friends lost to the storm. So, the reclusive L'na refined her treks to remain around the commune's desert flank, helping to divert military expeditions and wandering monsters from the Apoc refuge. Quicksand secretly seeks to discover if such a union can exist, perhaps the last hope for friendship on the barren world.

Tactics: Clever and fierce, the L'na uses the desert's inhospitable climate and her battle-trimmed body as an endless arsenal of weapons. Quicksand knows how to turn the glaring sun or a well-placed shadow into an ambush for her enemies, sizing them up long before they notice her. When she does attack, the L'na leads in with beak, claws and her scorpion stinger; or, in the need for confusion, the L'na can conjure up deadly sirocco's of flesh-rending sand in the midst of a platoon or pack, selecting the more wary as her first targets to kill.

A blaze of speed and precision, the L'na lances through the besieged opponents, dealing death and agony as a bolt of sharp talons and tail. Should her powers over the land and its denizens not bring the battle under her strong paws, the desert L'na will slip away as a phantom on the wind--to attack again from another angle or tactic. The best option is to not come across this relentless hunter, as her speed and intensity will bring the pursuit to a sudden, fatal ending.

Quicksand Artwork by Laura Sloan.

So what in the world is a "Hebdomadal Persona"? Just a fancy-pants way of saying "Character of the Week" - that's all! Each week, we're hoping to show you a new character that could be, or has been crafted for use in the game of Untold. Feel free to use them as examples of how to create characters, free characters for your own games, or whatever. Our intent is to give you cool, free stuff that makes your game better -- while, at the same time, showing the world how flexible and easy to use Untold really is!

As with all of the characters that we present to you on Untoldthegame.com, this is only ONE of the infinite possibilities for his character. It is provided to inspire and guide you, NOT force you into using this character "as is". Feel free to use this character as a starting point for your own, as a featured character in your own game, or not at all -- it is completely up to you!

However you decide to use this character, please provide us with feedback - comment on our website or drop us a line in our forums, or submit your own character write-up; we'd love to hear from you!

If you like these Hebdomadal Personas, please let us know by leaving a comment - or post in our forums and let us know what you think! Post your own characters to - you never know - we just might highlight one of YOUR creations, and make it an official Hebdomadal Persona too!

Looking forward to hearing from you, and seeing what Untold inspires you to create! As always - don't let your story go Untold!

Playing Untold is all about the story. We've woven story-telling elements into the very core mechanics of the game, so its only natural for us to provide some stories, as guideposts along the way, for you: the fans. Over the past several month's we've amassed quite a large store of these stories, and we wanted to make it even easier for you to find them. So, without further ado, we present the Untold Fiction Index!

Rest assured that with each passing "Fiction Friday", we'll be updating this Index and who knows? Before long, you just might see an anthology or two... For now, however, please feel free to leave a comment below, or let us know what you think about our fiction in our forums - we'd love to hear from you!

by R. R. Hunsinger

"I have chosen you and called you here, despite your petty and inconsequential differences. You possess the rudiments of that which is required to save your doomed worlds. Like great, fragile panes of glass, your three respective dimensions will soon collide, shattering each of them into shards of entropy... Heroes are called to the cross-roads of the universe, each suffering loss on a quest that they did not know they were on. Two Klik: sentient mechanicals, Apenimon the L'na, an animalistic being from the world of Ai, where the very fabric of existence is bound by magic, the barbarian prince Toa, and Sergeant Alicia McGraw, are brought together to prevent the collapse of reality into chaos and far more devastating destruction than the Event wrought. They must set aside their differences; accept each other and work together to succeed. Sergeant McGraw, Sarge to those who know better, has led men into battle countless times, but they were disciplined High-bred troopers, not the menagerie she finds herself among. She must somehow bring them together as a unit if they are to win, if they are to survive, because failure is truly not an option!

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by Ben Lee

"Powers are converging..." Taken from his home and left on an alien world, with no memories and only an overwhelming rage, Shadow now roams the ruins of Apoc Earth, following the directions of the mysterious Guide, who promises Shadow not only a chance to return home, but more importantly, a chance to regain his lost memories.

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by Corey "Benraven" Blakenship

At the boundary of night and day lurks the twilit world between reality and fantasy. Few can voyage this void, except as unconscious pilgrims in an endless land of potential. However, those who walk these lands willingly possess a power to manipulate life itself, contesting fate one soul at a time. Into this frightening truth, Private has tumbled, and he wonders if he can escape sanity intact. Come tread the phantasmal odyssey between the worlds of day and dream. The terror awaits and asks…are you awake?

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External Circumstances by Nathan Ellsworth

A chilling and twisted tale of the emergence of the External threats...

Short Story

So...what's Fiction Friday?!? Basically, every Friday on Untoldthegame.com we'll be bringing you some awesome fiction based on our new game and it's open Campaign Setting, Splintered Serenity. We hope that the fiction amazes, entertains, and interests you; and we hope that it makes you want to step into our world: one of dizzying opportunity and utterly unlimited potential for adventure, stories, and drama that forms the core of Untold's amazing gaming system.

Please let us know what you think by posting a comment, or dropping us a line in our forum! We're looking for more fan-submitted fiction, so feel free to let us know that you're interested! And remember - don't let your story go Untold!

"Death roams the world, seeking more than to steal a life.
   The malevolent force desires to incarnate itself into its own twisted minstrel, playing upon the souls of the condemned for an eternity of rotting horror."
         - Veteran patrolman to another generation of scouts

The lines between definite ending and new beginning blur in the realm of unlife the Event ushered into earth. Packs of horrid caricatures savagely expand their domain and numbers through the twisted reproduction of infection, slaughter. Prominent among the undead runs a horde of creatures known for their heart-puncturing screams and vicious bite. The gaunt, armless monsters move with alacrity, their clawed feet quiet on the cracked streets of ruined cities.

Few can stop the stalking packs from penetrating ranks of soldiers, feasting on their men and fleeing into the shadows to dine again once the platoon gives an opening. Most who survive an encounter with the fell creatures jolt awake pale-faced from a dead sleep at the sound of a howl on the wind. Such are the howling horrors which roam the lands of the North American Union.

Howling Horrors break forth in urban areas the most, a breed of undead that resembles an almost humanoid frame, the leg joints reversed and the head elongated to present a foul set of fangs. Scraps of clothing and mangled flesh reveal the once human nature of the twisted monsters, shells filled with feral rage and ravenous hunger. While these undead seem to possess no eyesight, the horrors move with uncanny agility and cohesion. Veterans suspect a primitive telekinesis or echolocation to propel the monsters through obstacles. However, the surviving soldiers all insist that once the terrible packs have your scent, they never forget it. To a man, the men refuse to patrol anywhere close to an encountered pack, seeking to take base duty or another hazard than to hear those familiar grunts and wails, the sound of the hunt.

Howling Horrors rarely congregate in packs larger than twelve to twenty, but have been known to coordinate hunting parties to press prey through narrow, high-rise alleys, valleys and other small quarters with elevated walls, allowing the superior jumpers to leap upon their quarry in deadly strafes. While armless and gaunt, the horrors' fangs have a severe biting power, able to sever through steel and bone. They have been known to use their feet for primitive grappling, but more to drive an target to the ground before inserting their razor teeth into the victim's neck.

Worse than their filthy teeth is the disease they emit in their saliva, a necrotic toxin that rots a person from inside out, beginning with the blood. Once the toxin laces the vital organs, the flesh pigments with the black fluid, a mix of the toxin and rotting fat cells. The skull goes through a painful transition, the eye sockets fusing to the frontal plates, while the maxilla and mandibles enlarge to accommodate full rows of canines. Strangely, the necrotic toxin also targets the clavicle joints, dismembering the arms from the torso. The leg joints also invert the patella and accompanying ligaments to create a forward hunch in the maturing horror; speculation suggests this compensates for the loss of arms in balance and increased movement. Even the larynx alters, the vocal folds tighten to produce an sensory-numbing scream. All that remains of a formerly complete human is a withered stalk, all personal effects either torn or rotted away.

The scream is a strong depressant and nerve suppressant, pausing the transfer of neurotransmitters between the synapses. These inhibitors force the body into various degrees of helplessness, from paralysis, concussion, or even cardiac arrest. Unfortunately, the audio pulses do not rely on auditory outlets to halt a person, though the howl has great psychological influences, such as dread, despair and utter abandonment to fate. Rather, the howls flow through the body as reverberations, targeting the synapses at their particular locations. Thus, the psychological and physiological aspects of a victim both require strong reserves to overcome a howling horror's attack. The effect of several howlers barking in unison is a dreadful cacophony which amplifies the paralytic frequency. Packs have been known to focus on the largest threat first with this collaborative attack, concentrating individually on smaller threats afterward. Scientists have attempted to synthesize an audio dampening device to embed on troops armor or weapons to help deaden the baleful screams. To date, the experimental squads have had little success keeping the horrors pinned down long enough to make the localized dampeners effective. Earplugs and thick ceramic plates have been noted among inventive veterans to aide in dimming the howling horrors' attacks.

Tactics: Predatory and pack-minded, the howling horrors utilize ambush and sheer terror to bring down squads of men at a time. Three or four of the monsters will lead a primary charge, wailing in unison to cause disruption among the target parties. The others lurk nearby in the obvious escape routes, prepared long ago as the true attack points. The group seems to use crude intelligence and communication through grunts or some mental connection, which allows them to keep in contact between separate pods. An alpha pair, usually the largest and strongest of the pack, begin the true assault on the targets. These select the largest of the victims, the others hemming in the remaining targets. The pack then seeks to press the opponents to the ground, allowing them to drive home their vicious fangs and fatal toxin. The pack will follow any bitten specimen that escapes, returning to the dead after the four day incubation period that spawns another horror.

Howling Horror Art by John Gonzalez. Colors by Christabel Sevilla.

Untold Ecologies is a brand new feature here on Untoldthegame.com! We want to give you a glimpse into the rich and exciting worlds that make up Splintered Serenity by showing you some of the wild and weird creatures that inhabit its various realms. What's more, since Splintered Serenity is an Open Campaign Setting, we want to involve you! We'd love to feature fan-submitted articles based on our original concepts or even concepts created wholly by you! Check out our forums for more information!

I am Cetacious, my people are the L'na, many of us are among you now since our worlds converged and I make my home here, in the warm waters near Battered Wreck it is a dangerous place. I am no teller of tales, but a protector, a guardian of the deeps and those that call the surface home. It is the way I have chosen. In order to fulfill that duty I must spin a tale, one that many will not find credible. But one that must be told, for the evil that dwells in the deeps is rising and the surface must be made aware.

I was out seeking a fishing skiff that had not returned with the evening tides. Now, a lone vessel in the vastness of the ocean is not any easy thing to find, but I knew her captain. A good man that fished a particular area of water I knew well. I found the remains of the vessel that morning, the red sun setting the waters a blaze with the blood that had been spilt. For blood had been in the water, among the wreckage of the skiff. The men that had been her crew were not to be seen, but the numerous sharks, long, sleek and deadly told their fate readily enough. With a mental command to their primitive brains I sent them on the scent trail of blood that did not exist.

The flotsam that had been the long, low, fishing boat was not what I expected; I maneuvered past the canvas sails that billowed in the water as if caught by a ghost wind. The hull had been scuttled from within, her belly busted outward, the boat had settled to the gunnels, her masts finally keeling her over. The deck, tilted beneath the surface, was unscathed. I unconsciously surfaced, blowing air and refilling my lungs. I hovered there, my flippers only moving me minutely to keep my head above water. I contemplated the possibility of pirates, but the nets floated among the barrels and crates. Old Captain Ron had nothing of value but the very boat that bobbed before me. The pirates that sailed the gulf would kill and toss the crew overboard, but they would not have sunk the boat.

Then the reason for the attack came streaking at me! It had been there the whole time watching me, putting the boat and sails between us, using the objects to break up the currents of its movement. I did not notice it till it was upon me in a flash of whipping limbs and green flesh.

Human-like spindly, arms with spiky growths, ending in webbed talons reached for me. A head, similar to that of a lantern fish, complete with a phosphorescent appendage protruding from its crown snapped in with long, flesh ripping stiletto teeth! Its body was eel-like in its sinuousness, its flat rudder of a tail thrashed; frothing the sea.

I pushed myself back and down, the creature flew over me and almost folded in back on it self to come in again, all the while I was being assaulted mentally by almost physical blows of rage and unending hunger. My own abilities, gifts of my home world, made me strong of will and mind, almost immediately putting up defenses like stone bulwarks against the pounding. My forelimbs easily deflected the mad swipes of the monster's claws. I bashed my nose into the things chest; an attack that has had strong effect against sharks that could not be persuaded to turn aside. It convulsed slightly, its gill slits fluttering with bubbles, which made me think that it had rudimentary lungs as well.

I pressed my momentary advantage lashing in with my own talons, but the creature was like water and seemed to flow past my attack. I felt a sting rip along my ribs as it managed to score first blood. The thing kept up the mental attack of blood and gore. I sent my own mental assault back, trying to override its power with my own, thinking to turn it aside, or weaken it for me to finish the fight. I almost heard laughter from the creature as my attacks found no purchase within its mind.

"What are you that you think you can face me and live?" said a burbling voice in my mind. It was wholly alien and was not the language of the surface dwelling two-legs, but it made me understand its speech.

"I am Cetacious, this is my place to protect, and you have spilled the blood of those I called friends."

"You are as insignificant as the land-walkers, though not as easily controlled."

This exchange occurred as we grappled beneath the waves; we clawed and gnashed our teeth, our blood mingling in the water. My conical teeth, the teeth of a predator ripped its flesh as it drove its own into my shoulder. It was more than the exchange of words; it was an exchange of sights and images; information passing between us as neither would relinquish the mental link.

Through my adversary I learned it called its race Loph, and they were ancient when the world was young, an elder race long forgotten, passed into myth and legend, resurfacing as images of gods, monsters, and mermaids. They wait in their deep cities, titanic coral structures hidden in the Stygian depths. Wait for the proper time to move against the younger races and the Event has given them their opportunity. With the convergence of universes, they have found allies: allies I could not see...

I realized that the loph was forcing me deeper, thinking to drown me, or take me to a depth I could not withstand. Neither was likely to happen. I grappled my foe, keeping its arms pinned, my head beneath its jaws, forcing them shut, as I punched for the surface, my flukes driving us hard toward the light. I aimed us at the floating deitrus that had been Captain Ron's boat. The loph twisted, sending us into a spinning dance, until I had to break my grip, else allow those teeth to close on my flesh once more. I did not see the thick tail until it smashed me out of the water, sending my senses reeling, letting the loph drive deeper into my mind.

It drove hot spikes of agony into my brain, sending me off balance, destroying my defenses. I could blearily see the monster closing in from below. It kept up the attack as one would twist a knife deeper into the flesh. As it closed and I saw my death among those long teeth, I managed to form a solid ball of water with my magic, putting it between us. The loph could not turn, smashing into my spell, careening back, loosing its mental hold on me.

I was weakened and bloody, so was my foe. We were at a standstill, it was a matter of who would bleed out first, or lose their concentration, allowing the other to smash in and turn their psyche to jelly. The loph and I floated about ten meters apart, we could see each other's minds as well as the blood seeping into the water around us; neither wanted to continue the fight, but neither wanted to let it go as a draw. The shark that swam back into the bloody battle-field decided it for my enemy. It was not one of those that I had chased off with a suggestion, this was a massive brute, almost fifteen meters in length, its, razor mouth parted, tasting the water.

The loph could not decide if I had the power to direct the monster fish or not. "You have been warned, Cetacious of the L'na, use the warning well."

With a powerful undulation the loph disappeared into the dark depths. I did not pursue, because I was wounded and I was not sure I had the power to divert the shark if I wanted to.

I managed to avoid the thing as it nosed the wreckage of the boat. I swam away with the images of Ron and his crew destroying their own boat at the loph's silent command. Its brutal attacks upon the men when they hit the water and the fierce joy it felt as it partook in the feeding frenzy of the sharks that had come upon the carnage.

And now I return to you with my tale of these creatures, this threat from a lost epoch. They are rising...and I do not know how we might defeat them.

Loph Art by Chris Miscik.

Untold Ecologies is a brand new feature here on Untoldthegame.com! We want to give you a glimpse into the rich and exciting worlds that make up Splintered Serenity by showing you some of the wild and weird creatures that inhabit its various realms. What's more, since Splintered Serenity is an Open Campaign Setting, we want to involve you! We'd love to feature fan-submitted articles based on our original concepts or even concepts created wholly by you! Check out our forums for more information!