"A song I sing, of the desert Jewel,
Ul'dah, the city, home to no fool,
She reigns mighty in the desert lands,
What force could oppose the Jewel of the sands?"
Saga of the Wind Swept Sands
![[Image: Uldah_ARR_01.jpg]](http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130623151657/finalfantasy/images/2/2e/Uldah_ARR_01.jpg)
Ul'dah, the city, home to no fool,
She reigns mighty in the desert lands,
What force could oppose the Jewel of the sands?"
Saga of the Wind Swept Sands
“Saga of the Wind Swept Sandsâ€Â is a joint, community based episodic rp event (Could that title get any longer?) being run my myself and Erik Mynhier on Balmung. The story will involve a band of heroes attempting to stop a group of Imperial spies from destroying the city of Ul'dah. Our hope with this event is to bring to community together and have some fun and, hopefully, make a story we all can remember fondly.
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Okay, you have my attention. So how does this all work?
We are breaking this rp event into weekly mini-events to make it more manageable for everyone and to try to accommodate as many people who want to join in. My plan is that each episode will take roughly one to two hours so people can fit it into their busy schedules. Each week, everyone will log in at a set place and we will run the story from there. These will take place on Wednesday nights starting at 8pm CST.
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There will be two sides.Â
The heroes and the spies.
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If you are interested in joining either group, post below or send Erik or I a message on these forums. All races are welcome for either faction. Once we have the set amount of players, we will give a set date for the first event. At the moment, Erik and I are planning to start this event AFTER the ball Erik his hosting in Ul’dah tonight, which will be a perfect place to relax, meet other people and have a good time. Anyone wishing to join the spies, tonight would be a perfect time to meet Askier IC and reveal you serve the Garlean Empire as well. If you are unable to attend the ball, there will be plenty of time to meet either Erik or Askier before the first episode.
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There are five planned stages for this event. (Warning Spoilers ahead.)
Stage 1 is registration and a meet and greet. This will take place at the ball and with side rps occurring between the ball and the first event's start date.
Stage 2: Erik will receive an in-game letter that is supposed to be for the Garlean head agent, Askier. Erik will gather the hero participants and go to confront the spies with the direct evidence. At the confrontation, the Garlean agents will escape, but not before the Erik takes possession of a certain document Askier leaves behind detailing information about the arrival of the last three parts of the magitec bomb and when they will be arriving.
Stage 3: The race. The three bomb parts all arrive on the same day at three places. These three locations will be described with a short riddle for each. The heroes will have a set amount of time to decipher the riddles and then get their characters to the locations. The heroes will need to split up to find the devices in time. If the heroes arrive at each location before the time runs out AND there are more heroes than spies, the heroes seize the part. If either the heroes fail to arrive in time, OR if there are more spies than heroes, the spies take the part. At the end of Stage 3, the side with two parts wins, leading to either:
 A) The spies take the parts to Ul'Dah and set up the bomb.
 B) The spies are forced to flee, their plan in ruins
Stage 4 then becomes either:
 A) If the spies have more parts, a race against time to defuse the bomb as the spies defend the bomb ferociously.
B) If the heroes have more parts, they must hunt down and capture the fleeing agents who will be taking various roads north.
Stage 5
The heroes will interrogate the agents they capture and then dish out their punishments accordingly.Â
It is very possible some agents will escape capture and might attempt to free their brethren.
That was a lot of text. So about dem Rules:
1) IC knowledge does not equal OOC knowledge. For this role-play it is imperative that you don't use OOC information. I don't think this will be a problem though.Â
2) Please note that the Garlean characters are people's characters and we ask that they not be killed unless permitted by the player in (OOC)Â
3) Combat: There will be fighting in this. Rules are below.
4) Have fun! I want this to be a lot of fun, and there will probably be a few hiccups along the way. I ask that you be understanding and go with the flow. I've never done anything quite like this before and if it goes well enough, I'll try another. =D
5) Registration. Once registered, I will put your name on a list for your chosen side so players can rp together. Please note though that for stage 2, there will be a finite number of entries who can participate directly since it requires some pretty personal role play in a small space, though all can watch. Other than that, there will be no limit the amount of players in this event.Â
6)Â We request that any orders Erik or I give during this event either IC or OOC, be obeyed without to much arguing simply for the sake of keeping this thing organized.
7) Garlean agents, please understand that as much as your character doesn’t' want too ,  they will lose.  This event is designed this way intentionally to give everyone a fun story to tell, but heroes win in stories. Plus we can’t actually destroy Ul’dah. Lol. Please note this going forward.
Combat: to make combat a smooth action and to remove level gaps from the equation, we will be rping combat. However, to keep things from getting bogged down, we will be using the following rules.
1) Combat will take place as a back-and-forth. One side will go, making their attack (or attacks, if multiple attackers) first. To see if your attack hits, please have a simple, everyday house die with six sides nearby. Combat will be based on dice rolls with Attacker and defender trying to role higher than the other. When attacking, you will post how you want to attack and roll the dice, adding the dice roll to the post: Ex:
 -Tom rolls his dice and then posts in game : Adin draws his sword and lunges forward, trying to impale his foe with the pointy end. (( rolled 4))
It's important that your post says what you're trying to do, not that you hit, because the defender will roll and then post what happens. Ex:
 - Ali rolls her dice and gets a five. Since the result is higher, she takes no damage. Ali posts: Meera steps to the side and avoids the attack, grinning. ((Rolled 5))
Now that Tom's attack is resolved, it is Ali's turn to attack. In the likely situation of multiple attackers on one person, all players on one side attack first, each going in order from left to right making an attack and letting the defender defend. Ex:
 -Tom keeps missing so Fred joins in. Tom is on left so he goes first - Adin attacks ((Rolls 3))
 - Ali rolls and posts "Meera dodge." ((5))
 - Fred rolls and posts - Torin attacks with an axe swing. ((6))
 - Ali rolls and scowls as she posts - "Ali is struck with a glancing blow on the shoulder and blood rushes out. ((rolled 3))
Now it's Ali's turn to attack but she can only attack one so she must be careful.
But what happens when you are hit? You lose a hit point! All heroes have 2 hit point, all agents have 4 (this is subject to change based on player numbers on either side.)
Once you have 0 hp, you are knocked out, or forced to flee, player's choice.
Healing classes can, instead of attacking, heal a wound on someone. Note, can only do this once every three rounds to prevent over healing.
2) No one player may be engaged in combat with more than 3 opponents simultaneously. To indicate you are in combat with someone, walk up to them and unsheathe your weapon. Once a player has 3 people standing in front of them, no other player may enter the fray until a player is beaten. An example of said formation is below with "O"representing one side and "X" the other
OÂ OÂ O
   X
3) But what if a friend is in trouble against three people? You may run over and engage one of the enemies one on one by walking over and standing in front of them with your weapon unsheathed. Whisper them you are engaging them and both you and the person you've engaged move a few feet away to show your ally is only engaged with 2 people now. Visual example below.
OÂ OÂ O = OÂ OÂ O =Â OÂ OÂ Â Â Â Â O
   X    =    X X =      X     X
4) IMPORTANT:  During combat, your emotes should be no more than a few sentences long. This is to keep combat flowing quickly and from jumbling up the chat window with long posts.
So what next?
Well from here, we all enjoy the ball tonight and Erik and I will start getting this all set up for the first Event on April 23rd. Any updates or further information can be found below and, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Hope you all have a great day and look forward to role playing with you soon.
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