Dunes glimmered in all directions, sugar facets reflecting dazzling glints of the setting sun, but soon some kind of watery, tree-lined lagoon appeared. And clumped along one shoreline of the oasis, buildings. Soon they surrounded us, many of them ruins, but a few evidently well-maintained. Each structure was shaped in its own unique, twisted fashion that hurt my already-burning eyes.

Icons, I recalled, wondering how much of what I saw was real, and which parts were the product of sucrose-delirium.

“It’s pointing to the Necronom icon,” said Nuts, holding up her demmie device.

“Well, then we’ve arrived,” said Coalshack. “Set this thing down.”

We settled amid what seemed a pair of agonized screams. I vaguely recall Captain Fu Tichi announce: “Serves ’em right for not getting out of the way. I’ll bet your ship does that all the time.”

“The Clever Gamble does not land on innocent bystanders,” I answered sternly, surprised that I could still make lucid speech.

“Well, not often, anyway,” added Commander Nomlin.

“Clever Gamble?” he repeated. “Sounds like a Cal’mari Casino.”

“So what is the name of this town?” asked Nuts.

“It’s the damnedest thing. I used to know.”

“Couldn’t you ask somebody?”

“I did,” he replied. “Everybody forgot. We all just call it the Nameless City.”

“So we’re going to the Necronom icon in the Nameless City where we will hopefully find a means of reaching Obtainia, which is not on any known map and populated by who knows what,” she summed-up. “Sounds harmless enough.”

A crowd started forming. I recall commenting that they didn’t much resemble humans or demmies or any of the phases of undead life I had met on this world.

“Look behind them,” noted Nuts. “They’ve all got odd tails.”

Coalshack shook his head. “Weird tails.”

“Okay, let’s disembark,” said Dr. Katske.

“Welcome to the Nameless City,” said one of the Necronoms.

“Captain Fu Tichi at your service.”

“Are you really?”

“Absolutely,” Fu Tichi assured him.

“Then scratch between my shoulder blades.”

“Sorry, that’s below my pay grade.”

“If you do, we’ll let you into the city.”

“And if I don’t?”

“We’ll always cherish the memory of your brief and tragic visit.”

Fu Tichi turned to me. “Montessori, don’t just stand there, wheezing like you’re about to faint. Scratch my dear friend’s back.”

“Between the shoulder blades,” added the Necronom.

Shuffling on wobbly legs, I began scratching while idly wondering if this creature represented a new race deserving all the proper protocols of First Contact… or if it was another form of undead afterlife on this strange world… or if I was simply imagining…

A wind off the desert kicked up again, filling the air with powdery white fog. Things got even more blurry at that point and I lost any grasp of time.