Sandman

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• Vital Stats

  • Name: Sandman
  • Gender: Female
  • Played by: the-mushroom-lady
  • Nicknames: Samman, Sandy
  • Race: Sand Golem
  • Alignment: Neutral Good
  • Age: ????
  • Size: Medium
  • Body Type: Athletic build
  • Height: 5'3"
  • Weight: 109 lbs
  • Complexion: Varies (see description)
  • Hair: Varies
  • Eyes: Varies
  • Handedness: Ambidextrous
  • Scars: Mummified left arm
  • Relationship Status: It's Complicated
  • Personality: Laid-back, easy-going, "zen," understanding, cheerful, animated, spiritual, approachable, hedonistic, adventurous, deeply intuitive.
  • Mannerisms: Near-constant toothy grin. Lots of enthusiastic arm gestures.
  • Likes: Traveling, seeing cool places, trying new things, eating good food, meeting attractive people, befriending attractive people, sleeping with attractive people.
  • Dislikes: Corrupt authority figures, infringements on the personal liberties of people, injustice in the system, the abuse of innocents, the trafficking of any kind of sentient being, systematic and otherwise unjust oppression, skunky beer and mummies.

• Description

  (This is a character originally from a Whitewolf game. While she started out as human in said game, and became a sand golem later, this version has always been a sand golem. This is the only thing I have changed, outside of removing some abilities and things that would make her too cluttered and powerful for role playing purposes.)
  
  Sandman Overview
  Sandman is the type of person who just so happens to be in the right place, at the right time, talking to the right person. She's the type of person who, when it turns out that just having one lousy icepick would save the day, well? She just so happens to have packed one before the adventure got off the ground. Sandman, this was an adventure in a desert. How could you have possibly known?
  "Ah man, I dunno. Just felt like I should bring one, I guess." She rubs the back of her neck, grins sheepishly, and shrugs.
  
  Intuition
  Truth is, Sandman has virtually mythic levels of intuition. She can tell when someone/something is lying, she can draw an accurate map of an area she is unfamiliar with, she can figure out what type of person someone is (and if she should trust them) within minutes... and if you ask her a question she doesn't know the answer to (or doesn't think she knows the answer to), her struggle to pull something out of her ass to save face and look cool turns out to be correct in every shape and form.
  "Where the witch lives? Uhm, right... well... uh, of course, she lives to the northeast of town. But it moves. Uhm, because, she lives in a wagon." Sandman stutters out, while grinning and sweating profusely.
  
  Sand Golem
  While Sandman is a sand golem, nothing suggests this fact. She appears perfectly human, bleeds seemingly iron-enriched blood (aka red), is able to shed seemingly real tears infused with salt, salivate-- in addition, she has no powers or abilities relating to sand.
  The only thing that could ever give Sandman's sandy existence away is simply: whenever a body part is separated from her (or something as simple as a lock of hair), it turns to sand after a bit of time has passed. Likewise, when she dies, she becomes sand. But here's where it gets interesting:
  Sandman then reforms from sand somewhere safe in the dimension she is currently in, devoid of all possessions. Where she respawns is completely random (aside from the fact that it has to have sand and won't instantly re-kill her), and depending on the type of sand she reforms from, her coloring can change dramatically. Red skin, hair and eyes from red sand, that sort of sandy gold-brown from garden-variety sand... and the same for black sand, white sand, and whatever other kinds of sand might exist. The length of her hair also always resets, and she respawns bald (the longer her hair, the longer she's been alive this time, generally speaking).
  While Sandman can die, she is seemingly immortal, from how easily she is returned back to life. There are ways to kill her permanently, but they are usually very convoluted, and generally difficult to pull off due to a variety of magical safeguards that are in place to prevent the magic sustaining her from being studied too closely. In most cases, the safeguards cause her body to instantly revert to sand and start her respawning cycle. Coming into contact with antimagic also triggers her safeguards and starts her respawning cycle.
  The parts of Sandman that become sand cannot be used for the purpose of magically scrying, locating, or otherwise finding out about Sandman. This is another safeguard-- her very essence leaves the sand and travels elsewhere. Nothing is left behind to tie it to her; not even a magical residue.
  
  Mummy Arm
  Sandman's left arm is completely mummified, extending into her shoulder-blade, part of her collarbone, and parts of a few ribs. It is invulnerable, fully articulated, supernaturally strong, and treats where it's attached to her shoulder as a fixed point relative to her body (thus, it can apply force outward, without opposite force effecting her body).
  The arm deals cold damage to whatever it touches, and prolonged contact with it can mummify something in turn, and give it the same effects the arm has (whatever organs this effect extends to instantly fail. No magic will sustain its original effect. Thus, if this organ in question is something vital, the owner will die. If the owner dies, the entire body will then slowly mummify, and... you know what, let's not go into that. Not like it's ever going to come up, anyway).
  A spectral version of the arm overlays the original, and acts more like a grappling hook than anything else. It can shoot out up to 30' to either pull things to Sandman, or pull Sandman to things. It doesn't seem to have much of a purpose beyond that, aside from being able to touch, and be touched by, spirits.
  While seemingly nothing can break or harm the arm, it burns as easily as paper, and doesn't regenerate when Sandman respawns. When it's gone, it's gone for good.
  Interestingly enough, however, the spectral arm would remain.
  
  Friend to Spirits and Living Things
  Sandman knows a great deal about spirits -- specifically nature spirits. She can see and communicate with them fairly easily, and they generally act favorably toward her, if they are relatively sane and untainted by the wyrm. In addition, she seems to have a small power for soothing and healing spirits-- while she can't work miracles, she can put injured spirits on the path to recovery, and set the groundwork for faded/deceased spirits to be reborn. This power can extend to the spirits of living things, but has a muted effect in comparison.
  Sandman has pacts with most living things (specifically low-sentience creatures that exist in her home dimension/planet/plane). Animals, insects, and the like, do not intentionally seek to harm her, and will only bite/scratch/sting/etc. in defense if she intentionally harms them first (example: wasps would not sting her if she touched their nest with no intent to harm). Additionally, most creatures seem willing to fulfill requests she makes, as long as the request is not too far from their regular behavioral patterns, and the request in question is not particularly endangering (spiders make her clothes bt-dubs).
  If Sandman breaks or otherwise goes against the terms of a pact (mostly by killing or intentionally harming something she has a pact with), punishments can vary from her requests to that group mostly going unheeded, to any members of that group she comes in contact with instantly going hostile and actively pursuing her. The only way to reverse these effects and restore the pact is to make a fitting recompense, and give a heartfelt apology.
  
  Enlightenment
  Sandman has been around so long, that she has transcended such things as fear and suffering. While she can be intimidated by a powerful foe (living is still something she likes doing), she is immune to supernatural fear-causing effects. Additionally, while she can die from sustained wounds, starvation, and exposure, she does not otherwise receive adverse effects from pain, thirst, hunger, or rough temperatures and climates (Example: she can still get heatstroke, or frostbite -- just isn't hindered by being too hot or too cold).
  
  Physical Description
  Sandman is overall scrawny, and near-perfectly average in appearance. Her face is oval-shaped and perfectly symmetrical, with oval eyes and a perky nose. She could disappear into a crowd anywhere, if not for her near ever-present, too-wide grin. She comes in a variety of colors -- from red to black to sandy-brown to white -- and it's always an unnaturally deep shade, thereof.
  Sandman's left arm is completely mummified up to the shoulder and shoulder-blade, and acts as a constant, irreversible part of her existence, as if a marring on her very soul. The skin is shriveled and blue-gray in appearance, nails blackened, and the whole affair is harder, and more durable than any kind of rock (she can, however, fully articulate every joint). The arm itself is usually kept heavily wrapped in bandages.
  Sandman generally wears comfortable, durable clothing, that fit whatever situation she's in. When relaxing, she prefers warm, neutral colors -- like rusty reds and browns -- in comfortable cuts, like tank tops and short caftans, over loose breeches. Her gimmick for years was a large brown coat tied about the waist, over soft brown breeches tucked into brown hiking boots. She usually has some sort of nice durable pack, too.

• Biography

  Sandman has been around for a very long time.
  
  The life's work of a powerful sorcerer hundreds of years prior, Sandman was designed and created to be the most sophisticated self-sustaining golem of that age -- able to accurately mimic life to such a degree, that she was completely indistinguishable from an ordinary human. A multitude of magical safeguards were put into place to defend her sanity and continued existence -- along with preventing people from capturing and studying her and discovering the sorcerer's method of crafting golems like her -- and she was given purpose in the form of a simple directive: experience.
  Sandman, the human made of sand, was sent out into the world to experience everything it had to offer. The sorceror collected her feelings and responses like strands of data, hoping to uncover some secret of life, and humanity, while Sandman saw and tasted and tried and felt and discovered.
  As time went by, Sandman developed a sense of self and being that the sorcerer had not anticipated. The sorceror turned out to be well ahead of their time. Not only did they create a golem so sophisticated, that its equal was never met... they succeeded in creating life.
  Normally to give real life to a golem in that society, the "soul" of another creature would need to be inserted into it. Sandman, on the other hand, seemingly developed a "soul" all on her own.
  This way of obtaining a "soul" gave Sandman a much deeper understanding of the universe and its inhabitants than another might: she knew the true nature of things at a glance, and she knew what is, what will be, and what must be, all by instinct alone.
  The sorcerer disappeared several years after sending Sandman out into the world, and to this day, she has no idea what happened to them.
  
  Long after the death of her creator, Sandman still travels and experiences. With her "soul," she has learned heartbreak-- while she never changes, the world does. The friends she makes grow old and die, the cities she visited expand and are reduced to rubble, the great monuments she marveled at are defaced by time and the vicious ignorant. She has loved many times, but ultimately, lost. Only the spirits of mountains and deserts and oceans and forests seem to last as long as she does-- she has developed a kinship with them unlike any other, and they are her dearest friends.
  For all the time Sandman has spent alive, she has developed her own philosophy: "You will meet, and part ways with countless people. It is sad, but everything must come to an end. Everything must come to an end, but your path never ceases. The path is life, and you must never truly leave it."
  
  Tale of The Mummy Arm
  Sandman was traveling through the mountains of Peru, when she happened upon a group investigating the disappearances of archaeologists in the area. A temple of mysterious origins had been discovered, but those studying it had vanished without a trace.
  Sandman felt, rather than knew, that the danger here was more than any of them could fathom. More than that, she felt that her path was not with them.
  And yet-- Sandman realized that she could not, in good conscious, leave them to whatever fate was in store for them. So, she tagged along with them, despite their protests, and they continued toward the temple.
  On the way there, they came across someone from the archaeological team. When he tried to tell them what happened, however, his tongue seemed to tie itself into knots, and he couldn't get the words out. The harder he tried, the more painful it was, until he starting bleeding from the mouth. Some of the group stayed with him, to help him back down the mountain.
  The group continued on, with this grim sight in their minds. When they reached the temple, they were met with the sight of countless stone pedestals holding mummies, neatly laid out. On closer inspection, they were... those who had gone missing.
  As they entered the temple's inner sanctum, to find answers at last, they came upon a series of steps leading up to a stone dias, in a room lit by some mysterious eternal light source. On the dias was a pedestal, and lain across it, as neatly as the others, was a mummified girl. She wore an ancient yellow gown, and bells tied around the ankles.
  Someone found the source of the light -- an ancient power source, that was self-sustaining! The source was removed, and the lights went out. And that is when they heard it.
  Crack crack, jingle jingle.
  Sandman had a very bad feeling. She pushed the others to hurry back the way they'd come.
  Crack crack, jingle jingle.
  Some turned on flashlights and shone them around, and a beam of light caught a strange sight: It was the mummy girl from the dias. She was standing there, stock-still, in the beam of the flashlight.
  Everyone's skin crawled. But soon there was screaming, and running, and Sandman calling out, "Wait! Keep the light on her!"
  But as the light once again shone back on the girl, everyone could see: she had Sandman's arm in her grasp. Sandman grimaced and pulled, but found she could not budge the girl who had caught a hold of her. It was as if she were made from stone, and even through Sandman's clothing, her grip felt blisteringly cold.
  Another thing also became apparent: the mummy girl only moved when no one was looking at her. Every blink brought her closer and closer to crushing Sandman's arm.
  Finally, Sandman pulled out of her clothes, and left them in the mummy's closing grasp. The group slowly backed out, keeping an eye on the girl--
  But then they realized, to their horror, that the entrance was closing! A wedge of rock slowly descending, primed to seal them all in!
  Throwing away fear of the mummy girl, they all made a break for it, and managed to slide through the door just in time. Finally looking back, they saw the door shudder to a stop -- kept open just enough for a single mummified arm to endlessly grasp out from beneath.
  After convincing the group to take a few pictures of her posing with the mummy, Sandman parted ways with the group. Later on, everyone who had gone into the temple discovered that they were literally unable to speak a word about it. Whenever they tried to tell the story of where they went, and what they found, their tongues tied themselves into knots, and the words they wrote blurred illegibly. That problem made double for Sandman, however--
  Since the mummy girl touched her, Sandman felt cold. That spot, for the life of her, refused to be warm. And in the following days, she watched a spot of blue-gray slowly spread over her skin. Over the course of a month, it grew steadily to encompass the entirely of her arm, and encroach onto her shoulder and chest. It stopped short of her heart and lungs, which Sandman realized was an incredibly lucky thing.
  Sandman shrugged her shoulders, and accepted it as her new reality. This was the cost of straying from the path, and she accepted it. And she was somehow glad of it, because the arm was the first thing that had truly changed about her, in a seeming eternity of sameness.
  
  Fun Fact: Sandman was originally designed to be uncommonly beautiful. In modern times she is perfectly average, but not because she declined in appearance over the years-- no, it was simply due to the fact that, because people were more likely to seek out and reproduce with someone attractive, the races of that age evolved into becoming ten times more attractive overall than they were a few millenia ago. While they changed, Sandman stayed the same.