Click here for a list of weather descriptions, seasonal festivals, and a real time:site time conversion.
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!
11-07-2024, 11:10 PM (This post was last modified: 11-07-2024, 11:12 PM by Sah.)
yet my blood renders me a King
With stones, gems, and the shell of a mirage crab in hand, Sah arrives at the rainbow gate. As he does so, the hybrid lets out a heavy sigh. Rolling around contently around the perimeter is a gang of four vampire gourds. He just can't seem to escape them this season. Placing the quest objects down, the Wild Thunder turns to address the others as they arrive.
"Good morning." He gestures towards the gourds with a small chuckle, "Before we begin, we need to deal with them." One of the gourds notices the group of Halovians and starts waving its vines in what appears to be an attempt at intimidation.
~
Welcome to the PQ to reinforce the Rainbow Gate.
1. Sah
2. Amhran
3. Elizabeth
4. Marcus
Round 1 of 8. No post order. Time to clear out some angry pumpkins. (If we finish this in time, I'll mark the thread as an SE for those who need it. If there are any leveling reqs that you need help squeezing in, DM me!)
11-10-2024, 09:23 PM (This post was last modified: 11-10-2024, 10:46 PM by Elizabeth.)
Elizabeth
No winter lasts forever, no spring skips its turn
Elizabeth makes her way to the Rainbow Gate, smiling warmly at the familiar faces of Sah and Amhran. "Good morning!" She's able to get out the words, but she doesn't have much time to greet them or the new face before they're met with the 'intimidating' vampire gourds. She has to fight the urge to pull out a notebook and document the odd behavior. Instead, she takes mental note of the way them seem to be aware of the Halovians. Will they work as a team against them? Or work intelligently to hinder their progress on the gate?
While her mind works through different hypotheses and curiosities, Elizabeth lets her instincts kick in. Rubbing her hands against the side of her thick winter jacket, she uses the static to spark the lightning magic sparking beneath her skin. It bursts to life as she raises her hands to strike the taunting creatures.
Elizabeth uses her lightning magic against the Vampire Gourds.
Lightning manipulation: Can manipulate lightning. Must be within a 30ft radius. Control is excellent
Type: Dark | Rank: Upgraded
Regional Score bonus: +9 in all shrine visits, drops, PQ+s, KQs, etc. (You must post this at the bottom of any post where a +9 should be included)
Excited to be able to help his region, Marcus headed out early to the Rainbow Gate. He waited and waited, until finally he saw Sah coming in the distance. His heart fluttered beneath his chest with youthful excitement and a bit of apprehension. He wanted to do a good job and prove that, even at his young age, he had something to give back to Halo that gave him so much.
He greeted Sah with a smile and a quick side-hug, congratulating the hybrid for his recent transformation. Then a stranger came, and Marcus introduced himself with another bright smile, ”Hi, I’m Marcus!” He said. But Sah was ready to get to work. Listening well, the abandoned frowned slightly. How was he going to help with this? His mind whirled for a moment,
With no offensive magic to use against the creatures, Marcus turns to one thing he knows well: snowballs. Reaching down, the young mage packed and formed snow until the balls were nearly icy on the outsides of them. Once he gathered enough of them, he started his assault. Readying himself, he aimed and then sent the snowballs flying one after the other. If he wasn’t able to hurt them, he hoped at least he would scare them away — though, that lightning looked much scarier than his snowballs.
—
Marcus tries to scare the gourds away by throwing snowballs at them.
Regional Score bonus: +9 in all shrine visits, drops, PQ+s, KQs, etc. (You must post this at the bottom of any post where a +9 should be included)
"Hello!" Amhran, of course, is present and accounted for and reasonably cheerful, his willowy frame once more clad in a heavy coat, fur-lined boots, and his ningo pompom hat. Waving a gloved hand to Elizabeth in recognition and glancing between Marcus and Sah, he's about to ask where they ought to start when they are interrupted by quite a curious phenomenon. Blinking soil dark eyes to the vampire gourds, Amhran tilts his head, his fascination evident.
"I have never seen a pumpkin able to survive temperatures like this," he remarks, jumping a bit to see the assault of lightning and snowballs. Without any offensive abilities himself - and without an offensive bone in his body, truthfully - Amhran clears his throat and does his best to, er, encourage the creatures away from the Rainbow Gate where they'll be working. "Off you go!" he says, crunching across the snow and waving his long arms in a shoo! motion.
Amhran shoos the gourds away, because he's a little baby fool.
Regional Score bonus: +9 in all shrine visits, drops, PQ+s, KQs, etc. (You must post this at the bottom of any post where a +9 should be included)
Sah happily returns Marcus' hug. Side-eying the pumpkin, the Wild Thunder all but dares them to hurt one of the youngest members of his family. There's a slight flinch from the nearest gourd, much to his satisfaction. Good. The only reason he's not sending the young Abandoned away is because the gourds are on the small side and Marcus is smart. In the worst-case scenario, his healing magic is powerful enough to handle any small bites.
The skirmish begins, and it goes horribly. Sah sends a slice of air magic at his target, only for the gourd to grab onto a nearby post with its vines and swing away. He has to blink for a second at the surprisingly athletic display. Elizabeth has similar luck as her gourd rolls on its side to avoid the lightning. Amhran's pumpkin is unimpressed with the Demi-god's efforts and simply stares at him unblinking.
Marcus, however, proves why snowball fights are called fights. Two of his snowballs land. One ach into a gourd's face. The two hiss with anger before rolling away to menace someone else.
Noticing, Sah calls out, "Well done, Marcus!" Not fully taking his eyes off the gourd in front of him, he nods towards the bags of stones and gems that are a safe distance away, "If you want, you and one other person can start sorting those by color. We'll join you after."
~
Round 2!
1. Marcus and one other person can start sorting stones and gems.
2. The other two need to finish off the gourds.
Between blasts of lightning, Elizabeth turns to the unfamiliar boy. He seems polite enough, and she gives him a warm smile. "Hi Marcus! I'm Elizabeth!" But she doesn't have time to expand upon pleasantries as her target tumbles away. She narrows her eyes in annoyance, deciding to persist nonetheless.
When Sah offers to let two of them divert their attentions elsewhere, she shakes her head, twitching her fingers with sparks running across them. "I'll keep focusing on the gourds." She doesn't want the kid (despite his impressive snowball abilities) in the middle of the fight, and Amhran doesn't seem to be much help. Elizabeth could use the practice anyways. With that in mind, she takes a deep breath, recalling her practice with Sah to direct the lightning back at the pumpkins.
Elizabeth continues her assault on the gourds as part of the second group.
Lightning manipulation: Can manipulate lightning. Must be within a 30ft radius. Control is excellent
Type: Dark | Rank: Upgraded
Regional Score bonus: +9 in all shrine visits, drops, PQ+s, KQs, etc. (You must post this at the bottom of any post where a +9 should be included)
Absolutely not built for this kind of aggression, Amhran and his gourd merely seem to stare at one another until the sound of snowball mayhem draws his attention away, and he blinks at the departing, hissing shapes of two of the other creatures. "Uh, I think I will help to sort the stones," he calls, smiling back towards Sah and Elizabeth - and good luck to them with the rest of the pumpkins - before approaching Marcus to do just that.
"You are very good at snowball fights," he tells the boy, shifting to crouch down by the bag of stones and gems and beginning to remove them a handful at a time, starting to sort them into their colour groupings. "I don't think I have ever had a real one," he continues. Snowball fight, he means. Likely he'll not be great at that either, though who knows. Throwing is different to outright violence.
Gasping with surprise and delight, the youth couldn't help the way his arms suddenly surged over his head in celebration. "HECK YEAH!" He called, jumping a few times. He had never had that much success over Ravenna or Margot in all their play fights, so to see how effective he was against the vampire gourds -- well, he couldn't wait to brag to them -- AND HE HAD WITNESSES.
Sah was ready for business, though, and as the gourds scampered away he gave their next set of instructions. Straightening his jacket, Marcus nodded and headed over to the gems. He took off his outer layer of mittens to display his hands covered in thin, wool gloves. Better for dexterity, but still warm against Halo's air. He turned the first bag of stones and gems upside down, spilling the contents over the ice and snow.
When the young--though deceivingly in a grown body--demigod came over, Marcus turned his full attention to him. "Well I am sure you will soon. Deimos loves them." He said, a bright smile breaking across his features that made a mischievous glint sparkle in his eye. "But if you don't want your first snowball fight to be against Deimos, you can always come play with me and my sister and my cousin."
Between Sah and Elizabeth, the remaining gourds quickly turn into a collection of burnt husks as lightning raids down on them. They hardly had time to hiss before it was over. Before Sah can even think about cleaning up the remains, a flock of ningos descends and begins feasting. Well, that was taken care of.
Meanwhile Amhran and Marcus get a great start on sorting the crystals and stones, a small pile beginning to form beside each of them.
With the gourds taken care of, Sah walks over to the duo, gesturing for Elizabeth to follow. Reaching down, he ruffles Marcus' hair, giving both sorters a nod of approval. "You two have made excellent progress. We should be able to finish sorting quickly if we all work on this."
~
Round 3! No post order! 1/3 of the stones and crystals have been sorted.
1. Everyone sort gems and stones by color!
It's a relief that the gourds seem to go down easily with her and Sah's combined lightning attack. And she doesn't even have to worry about cleaning up! Elizabeth shares a satisfied smile with the Abandoned, again thinking back to their lesson and how much he's helped her so far. Things could have turned out much worse without it. She'll have to ask for his help again soon.
Following him back towards the others, she notes their progress thus far. "You boys are doing great!" Her smile is warm and sincere as she settles next to them to sort the gems. Elizabeth places a red stone amongst the others as she asks, "So, Marcus, other than snowball fights, what do you like to do for fun?" She assumes it's much the same of other kids around his age, but asks nonetheless.
"Does he?" Amhran smiles at that, not having realised Deimos's proclivity for playing in the snow. (Had he been even a little older, he might have realised as much). "I'd like that, yes - that way I could practice before I try to start one with Deimos." His impromptu paternal figure has already established himself as someone Amhran wants to impress and make proud. And who knows, maybe beaning him in the face with a snowball will do just that?
Smiling up at Elizabeth and Sah as they approach, Amhran shifts a little in the snow to give them room to access the gems as well, all the while continuing to sort his own handfuls into their corresponding piles. There's no need to add to the question Elizabeth had asked, but he does raise his eyebrows curiously, clearly keen to hear the answer.
Raised eyebrows and a short nod were the only thing that confirmed Deimos' proclivity to snowball fights and instigating them, but it was sufficient to communicate that they were things of renown. "Okay, well, you can come over any time. It will be so fun. You can be on my team. Margot has this trick she can do since she has water magic and--" Marcus cut himself off as Sah and Elizabeth came over, his smile barely shifting from one of describing excitement to one of being basked in praise.
Marcus shifted so that the other two mages had room to be able to work alongside him and Amhran. Still smiling, Marcus looked up at Elizabeth with a little curiousity. "Oh, well, I guess there are some things." He shifted again, brows knitting together as he thought. His smile faltered, but not out of loss of joy, just out of a shift in focus. "I like to spend time reading. The Monster Hunter's Guild and the Arcane Academy have a lot of books and journals." Still learning to uphold conversation with adults, he missed the opportunity to ask the others what they did for fun.
Perhaps it's due to a trick of the light or the sound of ningos in the distance but all four of the sorters find themselves struggling. Far too many of the stones and gems are nearly identical. Was this one a bluish-purple or a purplish-blue? Multiple piles have to be re-sorted as the team works.
Holding up a pair of gems that seem to fluctuate between green and yellow as he twists them, Sah lets out a sigh. "Just a bit more. We'll get there." Eventually. He wasn't an artist, but surely colors were supposed to be easier to distinguish than this.
~
Round 4! No post order.
The dice were completely against us. 1/2 of the stones and gems have been sorted. Try again!
"Okay, that sounds good," Amhran chirps to Marcus, as if they are two children conversing with one another (which they are, if you think about it, Amhran is just hella tall and can grow a beard). "I am learning to read at the moment," he continues as the boy announces his interests, tilting his head curiously as they continue to sort (or fail to sort, as it happens) the gemstones. "What kind of things are in the books and journals?" he asks.
Glancing down only to see that things have become rather muddled up with his piles of stones, Amhran frowns gently and spends a minute or so re-sorting the more subtly coloured gems to where he thinks they ought to sit. "What are we going to do with these once we have sorted them all out into their colours?" he wonders.
