Oasis

By
Elizabeth Vana, Joseph Hutson, Kelly Roth, and Sean Kelloff

Game 332 RS

DESERT TOWN OF ENTERRA. MIDDAY.

The sun shines over the village, a swarm of moving people
kicking up dust clouds as they go about their everyday
business. The atmosphere is boisterous; despite an
appearance of poverty, and a lack of water, the townspeople
appear complacent with their simple lives. The camera
follows some children as they laugh, playfully running
through the sand. They pause by a woman haggling with a
shopkeeper.
WOMAN:
What do you mean, its 15 gold for
a cactifruit? They were 9 last
month, this is outrageous!
SHOPKEEPER:
I understand maam, but the drought
has hit my crop hard. Without
water, half my plants died. I need
to charge a higher price just to
make ends meet.
WOMAN:
The drought has hit us all hard. My
family needs that cactifruit to
survive!
CHILD:
(Gesturing to the other kids)
Cmon, this way!
The children continue running down the street. They pass an
angry old man on their way.
HERALD:
Repent! The gods have forsaken us!
They have taken our water so that
we must drink our sins!
The children turn the corner and run past a family packing
their possessions in preparation of moving to the city,
where water still runs freely.
WOMAN #2:
Do you think well have enough
water for the journey?
MAN:
Well have to make do, its all we
have. Well have plenty to drown
our thirst in Oasis.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED:

2.

The camera turns back to the children as they run. The lead
child looks behind and laughs at the others, and runs right
into a mysterious figure who is watching the sands shift in
clouds far off in the distance.
NOMAD:
Careful, kids.
CHILDREN:
Sorry!
A tremor rocks the ground around them, and the shifting
clouds start to move towards the village.
CHILD:
(Falling onto their butt)
Woah!
The ground begins to rumble and shake more. Villagers exit
their homes, curious at first, but increasingly frightened
as the tremors increase in strength. A wall of sand and dust
approaches on the horizon. Screams can be heard from the
village--cries to go back inside. Cracks begin to appear in
the ground.
NOMAD:
(Looking at kids)
Find your parents--go, run!
The Nomad turns to look at the giant dust cloud, which is
taking a strange form - some kind of long shape.
NOMAD:
(Looking at cloud)
What is that?
Control is given to the player. The tutorial begins.
Learning how to use the controls, the player is guided down
the street. The children can be seen far ahead, running
away. A building collapses. The cries of the fleeing
children can be heard on the other side of it. Traveling
through the collapsed building to help the kids, the player
is guided through how to climb, run, and jump, as well as
all other basic gameplay movement mechanics. Reaching the
other side, the Nomad finds the children safe - but trapped
by the rubble.
CHILDREN:
Help us! Help us!
The player learns how to pick up objects, and in the process
brings the children to safety.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED:

3.
CHILDREN:
Thank you!

They scamper off.

NOMAD:
They should be safe now. But what
in the Sere is going on?
The Nomad heads through the crumbling town, dodging falling
rocks and cracks in the earth as the shaking gets worse and
worse. Entire houses are reduced to rubble before the
Nomads very eyes. The entire town has now been assaulted by
the sandnami; it comes from all directions, obscuring the
scenery and covering everything in sandy dust. The Nomad
continues, escaping the wrath of the sandstorm by entering
the nearest building - a series of rooms that lead to the
front of a former sword shop. Upon entry to the shop floor,
a particularly bad earthquake occurs. A giant creature
moving is seen briefly through the front windows of the
shop, but we cant make out what it is. The shop begins to
collapse, and the Nomad must jump out of the way, narrowly
missing being stabbed by flying knives or impaled by staffs.
She examines one glaive in particular that almost took her
head off.
NOMAD:
Ive gotta be careful, this place
is crumbling. Better get out out of
the village quick, before
everything collapses.
The Nomad stands up, and goes to throw away the glaive. Just
before she does, sand creatures, looking like armored
centipedes, emerge from the ground and attack.
NOMAD:
What the hell are these things?!
Character finishes first fight with a slash or stab to the
creatures underbelly. She looks at the glaive.
NOMAD:
Maybe I should hold onto this...
The Nomad continues out of the village. She encounters
monsters along the way. Eventually, after a long journey
through a shifting landscape and moving sand, she makes it
to the outskirts of town, at the edge of a small ravine.
People are seen fleeing into the caves below. Upon reaching
here, a loud roar is heard. The Nomads perspective is
forced to turn around, watching as the village begins to
sink into the earth.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED:

4.

NOMAD:
This isnt a normal sandstorm. Ive
got to get out of here--the caves
should be safe.
The Nomad heads towards the direction of the caves. Just as
she is about to follow everyone else, another earthquake
rumbles, and the ground collapses beneath her. The Nomad
falls onto a ledge, far from the cave entrance used by the
other villagers. Trapped on the surface, the Nomad must find
a new means of getting underground. A marker points to the
boarded up arched doorway, which lay towards the cliff,
closest to the riverbed in the ravine below. A sign reads
"Danger: Do Not Enter. Corrupted Water", but the Nomad has
no choice but to ignore the warnings.
NOMAD HEADS INTO ENTRANCE
CAVES. UNDERGROUND.
The Nomad heads deeper and deeper into the cave. She
stumbles upon a locked door where the mines leading to the
well begin. Outside of it is the corpse of a guard.
NOMAD:
Sere, doors locked...but wheres
the key?
The Nomad searches the guard for the key, finding it along
with a number of gold pieces and a journal talking about how
boring guarding a dry well was.
NOMAD:
Thats some nice armor - and hes
clearly no longer using it.
The Nomad takes the guards armor and continues on into the
tunnel. It leads to a connected system of hallways, tunnels,
rooms, caves, and larger areas. The Nomad makes their way
into an antechamber that looks like it was once a flood gate
for the well. The door is locked, though there seem to be
missing gears in the mechanism that opens it up.
NOMAD:
Great, a way out and I cant get
through. Maybe there is something
lying around that can get this
thing turning..

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED:

5.

The Nomad searches the room, and discovers three gears in

various locations. One triggers a few giant bugs to attack.
Once all gears are gathered, the Nomad must then go back to
the flood gate and put the gears in properly and in the
right order. The door eventually opens, and the Nomad moves
on.
NOMAD:
Puzzle gears. For a watering hole.
Whats really down here?
As the Nomad continues, cave drawings and signs warning of
danger and "corrupted water" appear, though the area overall
looks clean and well-maintained. Eventually, the Nomad
reaches a large cavern. Most of the cavern is taken up by a
small spring, whose water looks sparkling fresh and clean contrary to the propaganda scattered throughout the tunnels.
However, it was obviously much bigger than the tiny trickle
of water it is now, with erosion and water markings lining
the walls and floor. In the middle of this puddle of water
lies a black rock.
NOMAD:
Thats it? A rock? Why would we be
guarding a rock? What in the Sere?
Just as the Nomad heads toward it, large centipede like
creatures break through the walls and head straight for the
rock. They encircle it, protecting the Nomad from getting
too close while also attacking her. The Nomad takes out
several of the smaller creatures, but a larger one appears
from the ground. This creature is more armored than the
others, and more threatening. This is the first boss the
Nomad ever fights, and learns to watch out for that kind of
creatures fighting mechanics, which include burrowing
underground and coming up underneath the player to attack.
After a time, the Nomad kills the dungeon boss, and
retrieves the rock, examining it. It is a black shard of
obsidian looking material, covered in strange runes that
flicker silver in the light of the cavern. Any health or
magicka that the Nomad had lost is quickly replenished when
the stone is retrieved, strange waves of energy encircle the
player temporarily making the markings on the stone glow
gold, and incoherent whispers are heard.
NOMAD:
(slightly out of breath)
I gotta find the Elder, hell know
what this is.
The Nomad heads out of the cavern, searching for ways to get
above to the level of caves the villagers retreated to.

(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED:

6.
NOMAD:
The other villagers have got to be
somewhere in the tunnels of this
ravine - if the Elder is anywhere,
he would be there.

After exploring around, the Nomad reaches a group of

villagers, huddled together in a tunnel.
NOMAD:
Excuse me, could you tell me where
I could find the Elder?
VILLAGER:
We set up a makeshift clinic
further down in the caves. I think
I saw him making his rounds - you
know the Elder, cant resist
helping heal the sick.
NOMAD:
Thanks.
The Nomad heads farther down into the caves, exploring the
different areas. People are everywhere, setting up makeshift
tents, resting, and gathering themselves. In the temporary
clinic theyve managed to construct, about thirty people lay
wounded on mats, some in much worse shape than others. The
Elder is tending to one of the kids you rescued earlier, and
he smiles when you approach him.
ELDER:
Ah, another survivor, good. Are you
hurt?
NOMAD:
No, but I must speak with you in
private, Elder. It is urgent. I
need your counsel.
ELDER:
Very well, if you feel it is that
pressing. My little patient here
should live - what do you think,
Karja, can you survive this scraped
knee?
CHILD:
I think so, Elder. Thank you for
fixing it.
The Elder leads the Nomad to a larger, private tent not far
from the hospital. Inside is a single pallet cot, and lots
of books. They look old, and their pages poke out a little.
(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED:

7.

ELDER:
(chuckling)
Admiring my books? I nearly broke
my neck trying to save them from
the sandstorm, but it was worth it.
They contain much wisdom, they do though my head might have a little
more. Anyway, stranger, whats the
emergency?
NOMAD:
(pulling out the shard)
In my attempts to escape the
village and find safety in the
caves, I found this. Can you tell
me what it is, and why giant
monsters tried to kill me over it?
ELDER:
(eyes widening)
Oh Isaern. I havent seen that
artifact in a long time. Monsters
attacked you for it, you say? Oh,
this is incredible.
NOMAD:
But Elder - what is it?
ELDER:
It is part of a very ancient
legend, and todays sandstorm is
finally starting to make sense to
me...but never matter. Its called
a Shard. You can feel its power,
cant you?
NOMAD:
Uhh...yes. I can.
ELDER:
I guessed as much. Listen, youve
just pulled yourself into a whole
mess of trouble. But judging by the
fact that youre here and the
guardians arent, I think you can
handle yourself.
NOMAD:
The...guardians?
ELDER:
No time to explain now. You need to
go to Oasis City and warn the King
(MORE)
(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED:

8.

ELDER: (contd)
and the Council that the evil of
old is coming again. Remind them
that last time, that evil creature
almost destroyed us. I think it may
have been what leveled Enterra
today. If they prove difficult, let
them know that the harbinger may be
out here in the Sere for now, but
he will make his way into Oasis
eventually - and that could mean
the end times for us all.
NOMAD:
Elder, what are you talking about?
ELDER:
I cant get into it now, but trust
me. All will be clear eventually.
For now, know one thing: all our
lives are in grave danger, yours
especially. It is vital that you
get yourself and the Shard to the
City, and quickly. Hurry, my child.
The world is depending on you now.