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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!
The events of LongNight had raised the stakes in this simmering conflict significantly. Things were beginning to move and Hadama, ever patient, ever slow to come to a decision, was among them. The time had come - perhaps was already slipping away - to take all that he had gained since becoming one of Safrin's chosen and put it to the test.
To test himself.
He had requested Captain Sanguis's assistance in that today, and had offered to teleport her with him to the burning sands of Hak Etme. He would be fighting not only her, but the desert itself. The heat. The dryness of the parched land, so inimical to all that he was. It put him at a disadvantage from the start. Not, perhaps, as great as what he would face on the Void's own territory, but it was still bad enough.
The once-Mer sweated profusely beneath the fierce noonday sun. His bare feet, though calloused, burned against the cracked hardpan of the baked desert sand, and his golden tattoos reflected the light in bouncing glints around him as he held his trident at the ready and nodded to Thalassa.
The world's a little blurry, or maybe it's my eyes,
Teleporting was a weird experience that she'd only ever experienced in the Grounds' Bonfire. Hadama's magic felt different, wrapping around her in a pulse of light that looked strange against her dark demeanor. But she still raised an impressed eyebrow as they appeared in Hak Etme. Sand immediately whipped by their feet, the sun pelting down on their heads. It didn't bother Thal despite her layers of cloth and leather. If anything, she was quite comfortable, tucking a hand in her pocket. Her head turned lazily to assess their surroundings for the spar, getting a lay of the land and what little there was.
Meanwhile, Hadama seemed eager to start. Not that she blamed him. They'd barely been there five minutes and she could swear his lips were cracking. She grinned at his insistence, cocking her head dangerously. "Are you sure? You're looking a little... parched." And despite the mischievous glint of her eyes, there's a grain of worry hidden amongst their depths. He'd asked for this, but she wondered if he knew what he was getting into. Out of respect for him (and concern), she unsheathed her daggers, standing casually as she said, "Why don't you start?"
the friends I've had to bury they keep me up at night.
"Mmh."Parched was, indeed, the correct word for it, but Hadama had known what he was getting into. More or less. His previous visit to the deep desert had been in Deepfrost - a milder time, by all accounts - and even then it had not been in the Furnace. But one could not grow stronger without facing adversity, and there was no guarantee that conditions would be ideal for him wherever he faced the Void next.
He had removed himself from water and moonlight, but he intended to work on making up for those lost advantages with cleverness. Or simply with brute strength.
Thalassa prepared herself and Hadama nodded at her invitation. "Very well."
He raised his trident and shifted a foot forward, though the captain was still out of his reach even with the longer weapon. Then a sphere of Arclight water shot out from the trident's tines, splashing towards the Ancient and perhaps obscuring her vision. It was enough for Hadama to push himself forward, crossing the distance so that in the next round few heartbeats he would be close enough to use the weapon more effectively.
The world's a little blurry, or maybe it's my eyes,
Despite her questioning, Hadama seemed insistent on continuing, so she shrugged her shoulders and prepared for his attack. She didn't have to wait long before a blast of water was coming straight at her. Being of the fire magic variety, she didn't really want to end up soaked. Thal ducked, rolling over the sand to her right as she pulled on her own magic.
The fire came forth at her command, sizzling the water it touched and heating the air around her. She pushed it into a wall that blocked her retreat. If he wanted to get close to her, he'd have to deal with more than just the hot desert. The glint in her fiery blue eyes said as much when she stood to look at him, waiting to see what he might do next.
the friends I've had to bury they keep me up at night.
The sand dunes shift under each step, tricking your balance. You pause to regain footing and sense a faint vibration through the soles of your feet. It stops the instant you notice it, leaving behind the uneasy feeling that something just burrowed deeper out of sight, waiting for the right moment. This does not count as a Random Event for levelling or MP. There will be no further admin/re intervention.
Thalassa's neat dodge was a pleasure to behold, eve if it meant that his feint with the water blast had failed. Her black cloak picked up a coating of pale desert dust as she rolled over the hardpan, but he was given only a glimpse of it before the wall of fire sprang up between them. Being a creature of water, he should have been more wary of the volatile element, but Hadama had always had an unhealthy curiosity about flame. First in his training as a seasmith and then later as a chef he had learned to harness it's power--
The earth shifted beneath his bare feet and Hadama skidded to a halt before he reached the flames, emerald eyes drawn to the cracked ground beneath their feet. "Hold," he called out to Thalassa, taking a hand off his weapon and raising it, palm out, to indicate a pause in their training. "Did you feel that?" He made sure that his friend had heard him and then knelt, pressing his hand to the hardpan with intent concentration as he tried to feel for the tell-tale vibration to occur again. "Something is not right..."
The world's a little blurry, or maybe it's my eyes,
As he approached, she flipped her dagger in her hand, ready to let it fly through the flames when he got close. But then he was raising his trident. Already in the throes of training adrenaline, Thal didn't like having to take a pause. However, she'd felt it too; the shuddering of the earth beneath them. She'd thought it was just her own movement disorienting her body. Apparently, that wasn't the case.
Her eyes narrowed. "Yeah. Weird." She was more annoyed with the interruption than the actual event, even if a tingle of curiosity settled in her spine. That was something she'd deal with once the original task was complete. Letting out a deep sigh, she placed her hands on her hips. "It seems to have stopped though, so can we maybe talk about it after our spar? Or are you just worried I'm going to fry you like a fish?" The fire around her flared as she gave him a sharp-fanged grin.
the friends I've had to bury they keep me up at night.
Good. He did not think he had imagined it - not twice now - but the confirmation that Thalassa had felt it, too, was reassuring. Even if her easy dismissal of the potential threat was not. "Stopped for now. If it is an echo shark..." A slight frown marred his stoic mask and he remained with a knee to the ground a few moments longer, seeking a repeat of the vibration...
"Mmh." The captain's taunt received a noncommittal grunt from the demigod before he stood, giving a slight, distracted shake of his head. "The thought has never crossed my mind," he informed her solemnly, but there was a glint of his dry humor in emerald eyes as he resettled his hands on his trident. "But as you wish..." The weapon in his hands blurred as he spun it and then lunged, extending the shaft and tines of the starlit-tipped spear through Thalassa's flames, using both his own long arms and the trident's reach to pass it through her wall - and hopefully to graze the woman beyond it without passing his own flesh through the fire.
The world's a little blurry, or maybe it's my eyes,
Thal shrugged her shoulders, willing to dismiss the culprit for the time being. "Whatever it was would have to be stupid to get between us." Appearing in front of a powerful demigod and a vicious Ancient? Not the smartest idea. They'd either be skewered or charbroiled by the end of it.
Lucky for her, Hadama was content to resume their spar, using his long reach to stretch through her flames. She stepped back and out of range, her flames raising higher to obscure his vision. Perhaps she'd gotten the idea from the Mer King, but she didn't admit it, flipping her dagger before sending it flying through the wall of heat. Meanwhile, she moved to the side to avoid any retaliation she might not see coming.
the friends I've had to bury they keep me up at night.
"Indeed." He was not as confident as Thalassa as to the putative wisdom of what lurked beneath the sand. Whatever it was, it was cunning. Unlikely to attack them head-on. It did not bode well for what lurked within the desert, but his power did not extend into the earth. He could do nothing unless it emerged.
But he was not averse to drawing it out.
Returning to the spar, he stabbed through the wall of fire but struck only air on the other side before the flames rose up. "You have gotten better at dodging," he noted with approval. He did not expect the dagger that came flying back, but it passed through the empty space where he had been a heartbeat before and he never saw it.
His teleportation magic existed in a moonlit glow that was washed out by the Hak Etme sun, and it deposited him on the other side of the firewall. Thalassa was not where he expected her to be, but as he swept his trident in a broad arc at knee level, she didn't need to be. He could reach quite a distance around him as he spun, and he shamelessly used his long arms and the length of his weapon to extend his attack out to his full range in an attempt to catch her regardless of where she had dodged to.
The world's a little blurry, or maybe it's my eyes,
The trident struck next to her but missed, similar to how her own dagger could be heard falling onto the cracked earth. His voice reached her through the crackling of the flames, making her laugh lightly. "Thanks?" It wasn't like she'd done anything special, but she supposed it was a flattering comment, nonetheless.
Although apparently her dodging wasn't that good yet.
Thal hadn't noticed him teleport past her wall, and by the time she had, it was too late to do more than brace for the impact. She let out a loud, colorful curse as the trident smacked against her leg, dropping her to a crouch. Her breath sucked through her clenched teeth as she pulled the flames around her then out, hoping to force Hadama away so she could pick herself back up. It wouldn't be that easy to keep her down.
the friends I've had to bury they keep me up at night.
The impact was satisfying after she had dodged his previous attacks, though Hadama was not one to gloat about it or rest on his laurels. Especially when all he was able to do was to lower her center of gravity rather than to sweep her feet out from beneath her. He made a mental note to put more strength behind the move next time; Thalassa had clearly grown stronger as well, and perhaps he could hold back a little less with her now.
The wash of flames pushed towards him, their heat combining with the pummeling he was already receiving from the sun above, and he moved back to avoid the worst of their ire. He wasn't quite fast enough and he felt his eyebrows and arm hair singe, a painful sear reddening his forearms as he protected his face from the conflagration. Eyes narrowed against the onslaught he gave a slow nod. "If you wish for us to use magic..." Who was he to argue with the good captain? The air shimmered above Thalassa, lost in the heat distortion of her flames as space collapsed in on itself and then lanced downward. Three strikes fell, one to her left and one to her right, striking craters into the cracked earth and sending puffs of sand up to obscure her vision.
As for the third? The third came down on top of her in an attempt to knock her fully to the ground.
But in spite of his earlier estimation of her strength Hadama did, indeed, hold back his full strength, using only the basic level of his power to make his attack.
The world's a little blurry, or maybe it's my eyes,
As her flames pushed outwards, she pushed against her knee to stand again, stretching the muscle that was already beginning to ache. She didn't have more than a moment to test the weight, readying her dagger for whatever the Mer King had planned. His voice was lost in the crackling of the fire, but she thought she caught the word 'magic.' It didn't do her much good considering she hadn't seen a lot of Hadama's magic, even less so when the invisible impact crushed the ground next to her.
Her eyes scanned for something to block, but there was nothing. The second strike to her other side had her shifting away, nervous at what could possibly be coming for her. Standing at the ready, her heart racing, she couldn't prepare for what hit her. Whether he held back or not, Thal was brutally crushed under the weight of gravity on her back. She was immediately forced to her knees, slamming them against the hard earth in a strained grunt of pain before the continued pressure put her flat on her stomach. The rest of her breath was pushed from her lungs before the weight released its hold on her.
In her stunned state, her fire had winked out, leaving her very vulnerable and embarrassing position for Hadama to see. She placed her hands flat by her side to lift her chest from the ground, taking deep breaths through her clenched teeth. Among the ache, frustration flared in her. Hadama might make it sound like she was improving, but the gap in their strengths was growing with every spar and becoming more obvious each time. Was this the power of demigods? If so, how were mortals expected to compete? It didn't seem fair.
Not quite ready to give up despite being pummeled into the literal ground, she rallied enough strength and power to launch a fireball towards the Mer King, followed by a second, then a third. All the while, she struggled to regain her feet.
the friends I've had to bury they keep me up at night.
He could not maintain the press of gravity down upon his opponent. That had been a skill of Seren's, a gift that was now lost to the world along with his young friend and fellow demigod. His own power was brutal but brief, and Thalassa would find she could stand without further challenge once she regained her senses.
Hadama had paused when the Ancient had been pressed flat. He could not sense the frustration in her, but he could see the tension in her shoulders and jaw, and as he stepped forward to offer her a hand up he hesitated. mid-reach. "Thalassa--" he began, but whether he meant to call off the spar or say something else would never be known. Before she had even regained her feet there was fire lashing towards him and he recognized the attack for what it was.
Rather than dodging he braced himself, raising his trident and his arms to shield his head as he hunched his shoulders and ducked to protect his eyes and mouth. Fire washed over him three times in quick succession, burning and blistering skin, searing it until the sickly-sweet smell of smoking meat filled the air and Hadama's arms cracked red and black.
"Enough." The single word came out through gritted teeth as he raised his head. He drew in a taut breath and exhaled mist, the water vapor almost invisible in the punishing dryness of the desert but no less effective for it. Immediately Thalassa would feel her injuries easing as Hadama's own burns were soothed and he finally was able to relax and flex his arms without fearing the cracking and tearing of cooked skin. "We are done here."
Magic: Turn the Tide | Can cause a moonlit mist to rise in a 30 ft radius that heals allies while causing enemies to roll with disadvantage for one round. Has a 2 post cool-down between uses.
Type: Light | Rank: Mastered
