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Character of the Season
Frail in body but dangerously quick of mind, Nikandr is the sort of character who proves that curiosity can be just as perilous as any weapon. A necromancer, inventor, and problem-solver with more ambition than self-preservation, Niki approaches the world like a puzzle box begging to be opened, even when what’s inside has teeth. Blunt, dry-witted, fiercely independent, and carrying a history best left partially buried, he has a knack for making even failure feel fascinating. Whether he’s raising the dead, moving across Caido to King's End, or experiencing a hangover for the first time, Nikandr brings a wonderfully strange spark to Caido, and we can’t wait to see what trouble his brilliant mind wanders into next.
Congratulations, Niki!
Credits
Court of the Fallen was created in October of 2018 by Odd, Honey, and Crooked.
OG Skinning provided by Kaons, with functionality and many custom plugins made by Neowulf!
03-28-2025, 08:54 AM (This post was last modified: 03-28-2025, 08:57 AM by Odd.)
They had arrived together, Hadama carried on the wings of his fellow leaders while he held the Lily in its protective box for the flight. It was his first time being airborne and he endured it stoically, though he was not particularly excited to touch solid ground again when that ground was Starfall's violet surface. Thankfully the first flower that had been planted there remained untouched, its influence providing a safe harbor for them to land and shift and finish their preparations.
"Thank you," he murmured to the Resurrected Sword for the lift over. And once Sunjata was ready he handed the box with its precious cargo to the Flood. He had his trident and had come prepared with a small shovel and a sack of rich soil from Torchline, uncorrupted and ready to fill the hole that the Lily would be planted in.
Once their various items were distributed he joined his companions in moving forward, activating his new ability as he reached the fissure and starting down into it grimly. The smell reached him first and he paused, brow furrowing faintly as he looked to Deimos and Sunjata for recommendations. "Was this here last time?"
Whatever solutions they offered he would accept and put into place before continuing down into the deep, the starlit tines of his trident lighting their way and an oddly respectable monocle in place over one eye.
Hadama arrives with everything on his profile except for his companion and Vi's Rose. He gives Rae's Lilies to Sunjata. He waits for Deimos to hand out items to deal with the bad air in the fissure and then heads down.
Magic: Temporal Echo | Hadama manifests two illusionary echos of himself that moves slightly out of phase with the original, making him difficult to target. The images has hit points equal to his 1/2 his END, cannot do physical damage to others. Can only be used once per thread.
Type: Grey | Rank: Ugraded
Currently active items:
Type: Grey | Style: Other | Level: Mastered
Varylens | A golden monocle that can see through even the strongest of illusions, at a range of 10m.
Type: Light | Style: Defensive | Level: Mastered
StArmour | Armour created from owlbear down. When not in use, retracts as a silver serpentine bangle etched with constellation and can be activated telepathically. Blocks physical damage. Has a 2 post cooldown
Type: Light | Style: Other | Level: Upgraded
Lucky Ring | A ring that when worn grants +5 luck. Must be included in all PQ/PQ+/KQ/DROP posts to be counted.
Regional Score bonus: +13 in all shrine visits, drops, PQ+s, KQs, etc.
Committed and determined, the Sword put all the trepidations aside, notched along the columns of his spine. Taking a long, deep breath, and landing upon the beach, the only safety net they’d likely be able to claim for now, he altered back into his normal form, nodding to Hadama at the thanks.
As for the smell, Deimos wrinkled his nose. “No. But we did not go far.” In fact, their last trip had been swift – with Ronin’s rapier still in his possession – but the odor gave him pause. Like in memories of old, drifting into the Spire and encountering particularly heinous results. “I can make some gas masks for us.” And if they looked silly, at least it had been a precautionary thing; the Warden already preferred to be prepared, rather than on the backfoot.
Utilizing his Creation magic, he concocted three – one for each – and passed them around as they assessed the situation.
--
Deimos lands with the group and masks gas masks for all of them. He comes with everything on his profile, except his companions.
Creation: When combined with Mastered Air, Mastered Earth, Mastered Water, and Mastered fire, can create 2 magical items per season (with admin approval). Without mastering the four elements, can create well-made complex machines, and an unlimited number of regular items per thread limited by endurance stat. Small items last their natural lifespan. Medium and large items degrade after a season. Complex machines (a telescope, music box, etc) must be created with the knowledge of the character (i.e., cannot create a machine you don't understand/wouldn't be able to build with relevant tools)
Type: Light | Rank: Mastered
Type: Light | Style: Other | Level: Mastered
Gambler's Gloves | A pair of supple leather gloves, seemingly innocuous. Doubles the user's Luck stat.
Regional Score bonus: +7 in all shrine visits, drops, PQ+s, KQs, etc. (You must post this at the bottom of any post where a +7 should be included). Residents cannot be cursed at shrines in this region.
save your eyes for someone brighter than i will ever be
Flying with them, it’s… admittedly a lot for the Flood. Starfall was one thing, but given his disposition to seeing what truly lied under the surface, it was a lot more than what Sunjata had tried to prepare for. But he does his best to ignore it, even if it sets him on edge, and by the time they arrive his jaw is set tight and he focuses on his companions in favor of their not void appearance, he easily takes the box that contains the lily, ensuring he holds onto it like it’s the lifesaver it is.
Shuffling the bag of holding further up his shoulder, the Flood’s knuckles glint where the flooded brass knuckles sit. The air is thick and terrible and he nods quietly to Deimos’ suggestion, snagging the gas mask as soon as it’s available, slipping it onto his face and feeling very much like he was back in Korofi during the riots. “Thanks.” He says to both of them quietly.
After a few moments of ensuring everything is secured, he starts to follow Hadama’s direction.
Sunjata arrives with everything in his profile except the Knowtbook and his companion.
He is specifically wearing this around his neck:
Type: Grey | Style: Defensive | Level: Mastered
Family Pheromone | A dark stone on a chain mined from Starfall. When worn on the island, causes all flora/fauna to treat the wearer like a Friend of the Family.
don't hesitate to bring me to my knees
SUNJATA
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
The mouth of the fissure yawned open like something wounded and long since left to fester. The stone around it was jagged, as if the island itself had been torn apart from within, leaving this great scar to rot in the open air. The violet stone, porous and pitted like bone left too long in salt, glistened with a sheen of perpetual damp. From within, a lavender glow pulsed, not steady, but with a rhythm like breathing—or worse, like something dreaming.
Your descent within will begin with silence.
Not the kind of silence born from peace or stillness, but the terrible, pressing absence of sound that suggested something had swallowed it whole. Even the storm-wracked ocean, only two kilometers away, felt a thousand miles removed. No wind, no birds, no insect drone. Only the faint crackling glow of bioluminescent fungi, clustered in necrotic growths that pulsed faintly along the walls.
The path down is steep, slick with something too dark to be water. The air is thin, acrid with the sour stench of rot and rust. Old blood. Wet meat. And death—layered thick, recent and ancient all at once. Bones littered the floor in heaps: some animal, many not. Shattered ribs. A child’s boot still strapped to a leg. Gold glinted faintly in the funguslight, a ring still clutched in one mummified hand.
And far below, in the violet belly of the world, something moved.
Not the skitter of claws or the hiss of breath, but a low, resonant sound that vibrated through the stone. A groan, or a growl, or perhaps some guttural attempt at speech. It was too deep to name and too long to be natural, and as it wound its way up through the fissure, the light itself seemed to shudder.
Welcome to the Key Quest. This is a hard Level 15 key Quest.
Your randomly assigned posting order is Sunjata, Deimos, then Hadama. You have 24 hrs to reply.
Remember to include a summary at the bottom of your post with all action taken. If weapons/upgrades/abilities/items/shifts/etc are used, please include their desc. from your profile at the bottom of your post as well.
REMEMBER: KQs are rewarding but dangerous. They may cause death and/or permanent changes to your characters.
save your eyes for someone brighter than i will ever be
It’s the silence that first starts to set him on edge, jaw working as he begins the descent with Deimos and Hadama. Steel eyes are peeled, picking up everything from the glow of the fungi and the remnants left behind. He plots his way through carefully, trying to make sure he doesn’t trip or slide on the slick surface.
Taking a moment to conjure up water from thin air, he lets it circle around them, low so as to not block out their vision of the surrounding area, but still there to be drawn from as needed. He grinds his jaw as the growl reverberates, and while his steps hesitate, the Flood pushes through it to continue down, clutching the box still.
Sunjata descends and uses his water magic to keep a stream of it around them so that he can draw from it as needed.
Magic: Making Waves | Can create and control water (a full swimming pool amount). Must be within a 60ft radius.
Type: Light | Rank: Mastered
don't hesitate to bring me to my knees
SUNJATA
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
Gas mask on and secured, he stepped behind Sunjata as they began to wind their way deeper into the island. His jaw clenched instantly as he witnessed the multitudes around them; the likelihood of drenched blood across the ground, the smell, the bones, the heaps of shattered remnants. The low sound nearby was likely a warning, and their pending fate – and he heaved another breath, not delighted by the thinness of its quantity.
Providing more air with his Mastered enchantments amidst their now water enhanced movements, he opted to speak through Attuned bombardments, sharing information gathered recently as they descended. Koa gained some insight from Safrin and shared that this place had multiple levels. Which of course meant this wouldn’t be their last plunge into the works of Starfall. Potentially poisoned flora, void-twisted beasts, and caverns filled with death at this part. With, based on what they were already seeing, was probably the right area. They could talk about the other portions later.
--
Deimos puts on his gas mask, follows in line with Sunjata, and creates some Air around them with his Mastered Air.
Air manipulation: Can create and control the air. Must be within a 30ft radius.
Type: Grey | Rank: Mastered
Type: Light | Style: Other | Level: Mastered
Gambler's Gloves | A pair of supple leather gloves, seemingly innocuous. Doubles the user's Luck stat.
Regional Score bonus: +7 in all shrine visits, drops, PQ+s, KQs, etc. (You must post this at the bottom of any post where a +7 should be included). Residents cannot be cursed at shrines in this region.
Death surrounded them and Hadama's steps slowed as he gazed around at the detritus of stolen lives that littered their path. He accepted the gas mask from Deimos with a silent nod of thanks and watched the other man don his to learn how it was worn. Then he slipped his Varylens into one of the eyepieces before pulling it over his own head. It did not sit easily there, but the improvement in the quality of air was immediate.
Poisoned plants? Hmm. Healing they had in several shades, and Hadama gave Sunjata a grateful glance as water appeared to swirl around them. It improved his morale, if nothing else, given the uneasiness of their environs. The silence. The bodies. And then--
The growl.
A moment, he alerted the other men, pausing by a jagged section of stone that held a faint purple sheen. His movements were blurred and hard to distinguish, a mirror of selves shifting a second ahead and a second behind him. He fell to the back of the line, but it seemed worth the moment of peace to use the tines of his Startide Trident to attempt to pry loose a chunk of crystal from the cavern wall.
A keepsake. A souvenir of sorts, if he survived. Hadama puts on his gas mask and attempts to take a crystal from the tunnel wall.
Magic: Temporal Echo | Hadama manifests two illusionary echos of himself that moves slightly out of phase with the original, making him difficult to target. The images has hit points equal to his 1/2 his END, cannot do physical damage to others. Can only be used once per thread.
Type: Grey | Rank: Ugraded
Currently active items:
Type: Grey | Style: Other | Level: Mastered
Varylens | A golden monocle that can see through even the strongest of illusions, at a range of 10m.
Type: Light | Style: Defensive | Level: Mastered
StArmour | Armour created from owlbear down. When not in use, retracts as a silver serpentine bangle etched with constellation and can be activated telepathically. Blocks physical damage. Has a 2 post cooldown
Type: Light | Style: Other | Level: Upgraded
Lucky Ring | A ring that when worn grants +5 luck. Must be included in all PQ/PQ+/KQ/DROP posts to be counted.
Regional Score bonus: +13 in all shrine visits, drops, PQ+s, KQs, etc.
The trident’s tines slid into the porous stone with a grinding sound, prying gently at the webbed vein of glowing crystal. The moment the piece snapped free—a sharp shard the colour of bruised twilight—the wall pulsed.
And something moved.
A sudden, silken hiss. Like a sigh exhaled from between ancient teeth.
From the crack bloomed a shadow, fast and glistening. A serpentine form slithered out with impossible speed, sleek and wet as oil, coiling in a blink around Hadama’s forearm. Its body was slick and featureless, as if carved from the void itself, the blackness of it shimmering faintly with inner starlight—eyes that were not eyes, but pinpricks of distant galaxies.
It constricted immediately.
The weight was immense for its size, crushing with an unnatural strength, its tongue flicking out in slow, deliberate patterns, tasting him, learning him. Along its slick hide, violet runes began to glow, not carved but writhing, like parasites embedded in flesh.
And then the cavern rumbled.
A distant thoom, like a heartbeat in the deep.
The ground trembled beneath their feet, loose bone and stone rattling across the narrow path. A chorus of whispers began—no language, no breath behind them, just an echoing chorus pressed through the seams of the world like steam under skin.
The air grew thinner still.
From far below, something ancient stirred. Not woken, but watching, roused by the snake. A pressure built deep in the bones of the island, low and seismic, enough to send a crack spidering along the edge of the descent, bits of violet rock tumbling into the abyss.
Something was coming.
Welcome to the Key Quest. This is a hard Level 15 key Quest.
Your randomly assigned posting order is Sunjata, Deimos, then Hadama. You have 24 hrs to reply.
Remember to include a summary at the bottom of your post with all action taken. If weapons/upgrades/abilities/items/shifts/etc are used, please include their desc. from your profile at the bottom of your post as well.
REMEMBER: KQs are rewarding but dangerous. They may cause death and/or permanent changes to your characters.
save your eyes for someone brighter than i will ever be
Sounds like we’re in the right place, then. Glancing over as Hadama begins to pry a crystal from the wall, his breath stutters in his chest as the wall pulses and something moves.. Schooling his expression back together, the Flood’s jaw works sharply, turning toward Hadama where the serpent begins its attempts to do… something to Safrin’s demigod.
Snagging some of the already conjured magic, Sunjata aims a ribbon of it toward the horrific snake, attempting to utilize it to grapple the creature to try and pry it off of the other demigod and avoid the crack that’s appeared, hoping that his attempt was enough to loosen that particular hold before whatever else was alerted to, or appeared at their location.
Sunjata uses his taking hold magic to try and grapple the snake off of Hadama’s arm!
Magic: Taking Hold | Using his water magic, Sunjata can form water into a tangible form that can grapple at a distance of 30ft. Success is based on a STR roll.
Type: Light | Rank: Upgraded
don't hesitate to bring me to my knees
SUNJATA
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
Even after all these ventures, Deimos didn’t really expect anything to come popping out of a wall. Maybe he should have. It’d be food for thought for later.
Regardless, his eyes narrowed and focused, trying to take in the moment surrounded by all the multitudes of chaos, the distant rumbling, the churning earth. Hadama was the first semblance necessary – for liberation from the snake, he figured – and while Sunjata strived to grapple, the Sword figured the runes embedded along its scales signified something.
So he tried to pinpoint with precision and might towards the runes upon the snake alone, hoping that action, and Sunjata’s, would help to free the Tidebreaker.
--
Deimos tries to use Mastered Air on the snake (pinpointing the runes specifically).
Air manipulation: Can create and control the air. Must be within a 30ft radius.
Type: Grey | Rank: Mastered
Type: Light | Style: Other | Level: Mastered
Gambler's Gloves | A pair of supple leather gloves, seemingly innocuous. Doubles the user's Luck stat.
Regional Score bonus: +7 in all shrine visits, drops, PQ+s, KQs, etc. (You must post this at the bottom of any post where a +7 should be included). Residents cannot be cursed at shrines in this region.
The stone came free but not alone. He could not avoid the snake, whose scales held distant stars not unlike Hadama's own shifted form. He looked into its eyes as it coiled around him, calm in the face of its constriction, and inclined his head to the dark serpent in acknowledgment of its speed. I am unharmed, he informed his companions. It may be one of Safrin's messengers. Corrupted, but... But they did not have time to deal with it just now.
Sunjata moved to free him and Deimos aimed for the runes, hopefully creating an opening. Hadama had no wish to be caught by a creature of the Void, whatever its source, when the source of the incipient earthquake reached them.
So he attempted to teleport with the crystal in hand, excluding the snake from his magic as he blinked through moonlight a short distance away to stand behind Sunjata. Who was currently wearing the Pheromone Stone and therefore a Friend of the Family.
In the right light.
Hadama placed himself with his back to the Flood, facing down the tunnel and bracing himself against the shaking earth as he grimly awaited what was coming.
Hadama attempts to teleport behind Sunjata to guard his back (looking down the tunnel for whatever is coming), leaving the snake behind.
Magic: Moon Warp: Can teleport anywhere within an adjacent region with 1 other human-sized living thing.
Type: Light | Rank: Mastered
Magic: Temporal Echo | Hadama manifests two illusionary echos of himself that moves slightly out of phase with the original, making him difficult to target. The images has hit points equal to his 1/2 his END, cannot do physical damage to others. Can only be used once per thread.
Type: Grey | Rank: Ugraded
Currently active items:
Type: Grey | Style: Other | Level: Mastered
Varylens | A golden monocle that can see through even the strongest of illusions, at a range of 10m.
Type: Light | Style: Defensive | Level: Mastered
StArmour | Armour created from owlbear down. When not in use, retracts as a silver serpentine bangle etched with constellation and can be activated telepathically. Blocks physical damage. Has a 2 post cooldown
Type: Light | Style: Other | Level: Upgraded
Lucky Ring | A ring that when worn grants +5 luck. Must be included in all PQ/PQ+/KQ/DROP posts to be counted.
Regional Score bonus: +13 in all shrine visits, drops, PQ+s, KQs, etc.
The serpent writhed as Sunjata ’s conjured water lashed around it, the magic surging like a noose of glistening force. The void-creature let out no sound, but its coils spasmed as the watery ribbon tore against its slick hide, distorting the glowing runes that pulsed like malignant veins along its length.
Deimos ’s magic struck with surgical precision: A surge of focused force lanced toward the creature’s embedded runes, searing through the corrupted symbols. They burst like overripe fruit, spilling violet mist and threads of unraveling darkness into the air. The serpent loosened in a twitching spasm—but it was already too late.
Hadama vanished in a shimmer of moonlight, reappearing behind Sunjata with the void crystal clenched in hand. The creature’s coils collapsed into a slithering heap, its star-studded flesh collapsing into sludge, burning away in the air like it had never truly belonged there.
The cavern exhaled.
Not wind, not breath, but something else—a recognition. As if the fissure itself had become a throat, and their presence a swallowed secret now retching its way back up. The stone walls quivered, fungal light dimming as dust fell in slow, hazy spirals.
Then the earth split.
The sound was like a continent breaking.
From deep, deep within the violet belly of Starfall, a scream rose—not pitched, not human, not even truly sound. It vibrated through bone and blood, through teeth and thought. A sound felt more than heard, pulling at the marrow like fingers scraping down the spine.
And then came the movement.
Stone peeled like flesh. Rock cracked, folded, and reformed, not as terrain, but as something emerging. Huge. Crawling. Carving through the depths.
A shadow darker than any void creature they’d seen slithered into motion far down the tunnel, its mass warping the tunnel around it. Scales like obsidian mountain ranges, jaws that did not open but split sideways across a featureless face. A ridge of broken antlers spiraled backward from a skull crowned with rot, fungus, and voidlight. Its long body scraped and reformed the earth behind it, dragging tunnels in its wake—it was the architect of the Descent, the tunneler, the reaper that carved homes from flesh and stone alike.
They had woken the Mirewyrm.
The Mirewyrm reared back, its spiraled maw unfolding like a flower of rot and gravity. And then—it struck. A beam of concentrated voidlight lanced from the center of its open face, narrow as a spear but moving with the force of a god’s whisper. It cut through the tunnel in a blinding line of violet-white, searing the air into ozone and warping stone in its wake, aimed directly at Deimos.
Welcome to the Key Quest. This is a hard Level 15 key Quest.
Your randomly assigned posting order is Sunjata, Deimos, then Hadama. You have 24 hrs to reply.
Mirewyrm: The Mirewyrm is a colossal void entity, vaguely serpentine and dragonlike, that tunnels through stone as though the rock were liquid. Its body is plated in black, semi-metallic scales that shimmer with deep-space reflections, constantly shifting and rearranging like something unfinished. It has no eyes, and its mouth opens sideways in a jagged, spiral maw—a gateway rather than a mouth, lined not with teeth, but with coiling tendrils of voidlight and gravity.
Remember to include a summary at the bottom of your post with all action taken. If weapons/upgrades/abilities/items/shifts/etc are used, please include their desc. from your profile at the bottom of your post as well.
REMEMBER: KQs are rewarding but dangerous. They may cause death and/or permanent changes to your characters.
save your eyes for someone brighter than i will ever be
As it turns out, the snake is the least of their worries. Because as Deimos and Sunjata work to get it to release, Hadama appears behind him, and something else stirs. The sound is brutal and so loud that Sunjata flinches, grinding his jaw to fight through the intense sound that makes him wonder if he’ll have eardrums left after this.
It’s really no match for the site of the beast as it arrives, though. Because to Sunjata, it’s each and every horrifying thing that the Flood had shied away from, whether it be the infected creatures or those that had become friends of the family. This was entirely it in all of its horrifying glory.
And then it attacks, all horrible bright void light and purple twinges, that Sunjata luckily avoids as it focuses on Deimos — but fuck, that had to hurt. I can heal. It’s his panic and gut instinct that has him plucking a different string of his magic, ensuring he was close enough to Deimos to loosen it. Rain begins to fall in the cavern, aiming to heal and damage should the Mirewyrm be in the same proximity.
Sunjata moves a little closer to Deimos to use his healing magic, and maybe damage the Mirewyrm if it’s in the same range (but his focus is to heal Deimos!)
Magic: Let it Rain | Can cause rain to fall in a 30 ft radius that heals allies while damaging enemies. May be used two times per thread, with a two post cooldown.
Type: Grey | Rank: Upgraded
He’s still wearing the crystal as well:
Type: Grey | Style: Defensive | Level: Mastered
Family Pheromone | A dark stone on a chain mined from Starfall. When worn on the island, causes all flora/fauna to treat the wearer like a Friend of the Family.
don't hesitate to bring me to my knees
SUNJATA
No permission needed for power play!
Feel free to use magic/force on Sunjata, without killing him <3
Sunjata speaks with an Australian accent and has a passive magic that makes him produce a subtle scent that matches exactly to whatever those around him most desire him to smell like.
He nearly rolled his eyes as Hadama teleported; an attack not needed but there just the same. It didn’t much matter thereafter anyway – because then the cavern released its incoming volley – the ground unfurling its coiled lengths of impending damnation and terror. He stared at the featureless face, the long tunneling monstrosity, and clenched his jaw.
The impact blistered into his senses – shooting infernal pain – and it’d been a long, long time since he’d been hit like that. Inhaling sharply, he tried to numb it all out across the Attuned bond so none of his constituents were bombarded with the same, and he directed gratitude instead towards Sunjata. Thank you.
Then he opted for his vengeance, pulling into all the Mastered Air proportions he had at his disposal, pinpointing notions amidst their trio while he gathered himself. Do either of you have a way we could shield against it? He thought of the icy pinnacles of barriers, but it wouldn’t do anything against the void.
With those machinations in mind, he unleashed the enchantments, directing the course of so much ferocity towards the mirewyrm.
--
Deimos tries to use his Mastered Air on the Mirewyrm.
Air manipulation: Can create and control the air. Must be within a 30ft radius.
Type: Grey | Rank: Mastered
Magic: Tailwind: adds additional air magic damage at mastered level on a successful hit when Deimos uses his air magic.
Type: Grey | Rank: Mastered
Type: Light | Style: Other | Level: Mastered
Gambler's Gloves | A pair of supple leather gloves, seemingly innocuous. Doubles the user's Luck stat.
Regional Score bonus: +7 in all shrine visits, drops, PQ+s, KQs, etc. (You must post this at the bottom of any post where a +7 should be included). Residents cannot be cursed at shrines in this region.
