Stony Sands

## Architect

* HyperSilence
* Zerg
* Tox

## Affiliation

Hyperion

**Stony Sands** was the fortress headquarters of Hyperion in the Badlands during Dragonhollow's Fourth Era.

Constant sieges and surprise attacks by their enemies forced its residents to upgrade defenses and fix design flaws, eventually resulting in a nearly impenetrable stronghold.

It served as the center of the community of the Rim.

# Description

Like much of the Badlands, those that constructed Stony Sands designed it for practical purposes, not aesthetic merit. As such, it was not particularly pleasant to look at.

At first, Stony Sands was little more than an underground XP farm accessible from the surface by a small cobble shack. After renovations and fortifications, it became a giant stone brick shell roofed by glass and bordered by the Wall on one side.

The surface housed villager kiosks and a stable of skeleton horses.

The fortress featured a skeleton farm, an AFK fish farm, a tree farm, and protected underground livestock pens and crop fields. The lower levels of the base were separated into two wings that could be independently sealed off from each other in case of enemy intruders.

A sea green beacon shone high above Stony Sands.

# History

The future site of Stony Sands was first settled by the Archpriest HyperSilence, who had voluntarily given up his demigod power in order to interact with the affairs of mortals once again.

On 4E:418, he extended an invitation to Zerg and Tox to join his new Hyperion faction. The two men were already working together under their Pact of Ice and Fire, which dated back to the Third Era. Both accepted immediately.

After Tox came under fishing rod attack from Gabault, Zerg began construction on a stone brick retaining wall that would eventually give the fortress its name. Tox eventually took over the project and after raising the walls more than a hundred meters above the ground he capped them with a glass ceiling to prevent aerial attacks from towers.

When Hyperion acquired and installed the region's first beacon, Stony Sands became the only place in the Badlands to offer regenerative health. As a result, weary travelers and struggling residents journeyed to the fortress and became the basis for a community that sprung up outside its walls known as the Rim.

On 4E:419, the Merry Men infiltrated Stony Sands through its warren of mineshafts and killed Zerg, marking the beginning of the Merry Men-Hyperion War. The faction besieged the fortress for the remainder of the Fourth Era, finding inventive ways to breach its defenses and kill the inhabitants. At one point, Gabault managed to crawl through their AFK fishing form using well-placed ender pearls and then beheaded Zerg. With each intrusion, Hyperion engineered ways to counter them, eventually resulting in the most fortified structure in the Badlands.

Later, local brigands Bloodwrath and Jack Firebane paired up to try to assassinate HyperSilence, who they felt was cheating the Badlands Survivor competition by illegally accruing days during hibernation, something supposedly prevented by the Telchine Retro's own magical devices. Nevertheless, the two were unable to gain entrance into Stony Sands.

On 4E:424, Eris used Stony Sands for an unannounced test of her new mechanics that would allow residents to manipulate fence gates, levers, buttons, and doors in land claims they were trespassing upon. Because it was one of the most secure structures in the Badlands, it made a perfect proving ground. She quietly asked Jrod, one of the Merry Men and an enemy of Hyperion, to try and use the fortified front gate. Discovering it was vulnerable, Jrod breached Stony Sands and stabbed Tox in the back, drawing gleeful cackles from Eris. Hyperion quickly demolished all existing entrances and replaced them with dirt blocks that had to be broken to enter and exit.

When Sanctuary arrived above the Badlands, Hyperion abandoned Stony Sands and migrated to newly discovered Pandora on 5E:1.

# Gallery

Zerg constructing the outer wallCourtyardHyperSilence in the basementAt sunsetRocco on the roofHyperSilence and Acey in the basementhullp me, human!For scienceUnderground crop fieldHyperSilence tests first elytra in DragonhollowRetro in the basementView of Merry Men headquarters from roofFrom afarRocco locked outRetro outside front gate