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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!
Healing measures taken and stoked, with hopefully everyone revitalized and renewed, meant they’d have a second wind before anything came knocking at the proverbial doors. As Damien and Theea approached tunnels, and Hawthorn healed, Deimos made to adjust and cut off portions – and anyone would be able to hear the angry, infuriated squealing and squeaking from outside those newfound borders – a steady chomping at stone that was no longer soft. The ROUs would have to find another way around.
At which they did – no sooner had the Sword ensured every other route was sealed, save for Tunnel One and Tunnel Two, they advanced – one massive, all-encompassing beast of a rat, another medium sized, and several other smaller cretins, blind and vicious, raising their noses to smell and test the air. All of them quickly bypassed Damien and Theea as if they were nothing – aiming directly for Hawthorn and Deimos alike.
Quickly, the Warden summoned a sharp, icy barrier, throwing it upwards to cover himself and the Abandoned, but it would only do so much for the moment.
--
And more ROUS are here! Pick a target, describe your action, and go!
Big Boy ROU: 200/200
Perfectly Adequate ROU: 110/110
Small ROU 1: 20/20
Small ROU 2: 20/20
Small ROU 3: 20/20
you're all bronze and bite all venom and fistfight
The squealing hit first, a rising saw-blade sound grinding out of the sealed stone. Then the scratching, the gnawing, the gnash of teeth against walls that weren’t going to give. Damien’s grip tightened on the axe haft, shoulders squared.
When they came, they came all at once—one massive brute, a smaller shadow riding its heels, and a scatter of vermin that darted like thrown knives. They didn’t even pause to lunge at him or Theea. They streamed past, straight for Thorn and Deimos.
“Not a chance,” Damien growled.
He lunged forward, cutting across the nave in a wide stride, injury no longer slowing him down. Axe rose, weight solid in both hands, and he swung hard at the medium-sized ROU, angling to bury the blade in its flank before it could reach his friend. The force of the strike carried his whole frame, turning his body into a wall between the beast and the men behind him.
The crack of Deimos’ ice barrier went up, glittering sharp in his periphery, but Damien didn’t spare it more than a glance. His focus was on the brute in front of him, the smell of its damp hide, the heat of its squeal.
Damien charges forward to intercept and attack the Perfectly Adequate ROU with his battle axe, aiming to draw its attention away from Thorn and Deimos.
know this ain't for the weak
or for hate, it's for soul
I bite off a curse as they stream past me like I’m furniture. Heat flares up my neck. I pivot hard on the ball of my foot, shoulders loose, both blades flashing as I chase their line across the nave. Candlelight skitters along steel and polished stone; the air tastes of old wax and damp fur. Damien’s already there—axe set, body squared between Deimos and Thorn—and the sight of him braced like that pulls me tighter into focus.
“Oh, no you don’t.”
I cut diagonally through the aisle, slipping around a pew’s end, and set my back to a pillar to kill any chance of being boxed in. Weight on the balls of my feet, I bring the shortsword low and fast in a crescent meant to sheer at shin height, at the smallest of them, then let the dagger chase a heartbeat later in a tight cross-cut across higher line. One rhythm, two edges—clean, efficient, no flourish, and I hope to cut through more than one. I keep my elbows tucked and my stance compact so I can roll either blade into a guard or a thrust without overcommitting. If a gap opens at knee level, my boot is ready to snap through it to keep the lane beside Damien clear.
I track breath and distance—the give of leather in my grip, the tack of drying blood under my palm. I angle my shoulders to screen the approach, blades working like shears to thin anything that tries to press together. I don’t look back at him, but I know where Damien is by the gravity of him, the way a room steadies around his stance; I hold the space to his side like it’s a promise—my steel the line that tried to keep his flank clean.
Theea swings for ROU one, with a wide sweep to try and catch the other two at the same time to stop them from swarming the others.
The ROUs don’t waste any time, Thorn suddenly realizes as he tries desperately to block one of the holes they could emerge from. Deimos works on his own extension and as Thorn tries to put his focus into it further, he hears the angry squeals and scratching claws against the stone. He tries to brace for it, but the hole he’d expected them to flood from is not the one that he’d thought it would be, and the courtesan is taken by surprise when the ROUs start bolting at himself and Deimos.
He braces for impact, but it’s Deimos that covers them both and with a huff of a soft squeak of surprise, the courtesan hisses and grips the blade tighter, aiming to strike out at the closest ROU to him when the barrier falls.
Thorn aims his dagger at the closest ROU to them when Deimos’ barrier drops!
It didn’t take long for the party to seethe amidst the impending bloodshed – but who would be unfurling the most ichor remained to be seen. Damien ’s battle ax swung directly into the Perfectly Adequate ROU, and it turned away from its onslaught towards Hawthorn and Deimos – distracted, mauled, and wounded, but certainly not deterred. With enough energy, zest, venom, and malice, it launched at the Accepted, biting down on his arm.
Theea, though normally accurate, would find herself incapable of hitting the smaller ROU 1 – fast and vicious, it even snagged at one of her daggers that had gone flying along the floor in the crossfire…and while one might surmise it a nearly humorous situation, no one could be definite that the spiteful rodent wouldn’t try to use it.
Deimos narrowed his eyes, watching this go on from behind the shield with a very subtle shake of his head, knowing he’d have to make some alterations to his upcoming plan. Rather than lower the icy barrier, he altered its shape, conforming one of the pinnacles of its rime-coating into shards and barbs, effectively stabbing into Big Boy ROU as it charged at them. Taking another breath, he dug it further into the beast, and as it howled and screeched for its brethren, it would find it couldn’t do anything else but flail – stuck where the Sword could continue to ensure its demise.
Hawthorn, going for the closest thing desperately trying to sneak around the magic, found his mark upon the Small ROU 2, sinking into its flesh with a meddlesome squeak. It reared back and strived to enact the same violence upon the Abandoned, but missed due the barrier, and ROU 3 equally ran into the shield, stunning itself with an impressive display of stupidity.
--
Rinse and repeat!
Big Boy ROU: 94/200 (stabbed/stuck on the shield)
Perfectly Adequate ROU: 91/110 (currently biting down on Damien’s arm)
Small ROU 1: 20/20 (took Theea’s dagger)
Small ROU 2: 4/20
Small ROU 3: 17/20 (stunned)
you're all bronze and bite all venom and fistfight
If he’s being honest, the courtesan is so very focused on the ROU that runs at them that he misses the events that happen outside of his general whereabouts. He doesn’t see Damian’s battle nor does he see Theea’s dagger as it flies away from her. He sees the one that runs at him and the one that he attacks, sucking in a sharp breath of surprise to see the ROU 3 end up bouncing off the shield that Deimos had created.
It would be funny if he wasn’t so worried about getting bit, but he tries his best to follow through with the follow up. He goes around the barrier again, this time with the dagger aimed for ROU 2 again while ROU 3 is stunned to hopefully avoid getting nipped or barraged by two ROUs at once.
Pain hit like lightning — white-hot, sharp, absolute. The ROU's teeth clamped around his forearm, weight dragging him half a step forward before his boots dug in and held. The sound it made up close wasn’t a growl; it was a kind of wet grinding. He could smell the filth on its breath, feel the crunch of its jaw trying to find bone through muscle.
He didn't cry out. Just a low, guttural sound somewhere between anger and pain as he fought back. The axe was still in his free hand, and that was all he needed.
He turned with the pull of the giant perfectly adequate rat's body instead of fighting it, using the momentum to line up his next swing. The blade came around short and mean, a chopping motion meant to split through the thick hide right above its neck. Too close for elegance. Too close for anything but brutality.
Out of the corner of his eye he caught motion—Theea wrestling one of the smaller rats, her dagger gone, her shoulders squared. Deimos' shield remained standing, Thorn still fighting. Good. That steadied something in him, as he drove the axe down upon his own adversary.
Damien hacks at the “Perfectly Adequate ROU” currently latched onto his arm, aiming to drive the axe into its neck or shoulder to force it off him.
know this ain't for the weak
or for hate, it's for soul
The dagger skitters—and the little bastard snatches it like it owns the place.
“You little shit!”
It flashes my own blade back at me—insulting. Heat spikes, one part embarrassment and one part outrage; I’m already moving. Boots bite stone as I cut across the nave, the shortsword flipping into an ice-pick grip, point low and hungry. Candlelight slides along steel; the air is wax and wet hide.
“Drop it...” I tell it like a dog with a bone.
I feint left to herd it toward a pew, shoulder tight to keep my line clean, then drive in hard, vertical, aiming to pin the thief to the boards—tip straight for the crown—ready to rip free and follow with a boot if the steel glances.
Theea FINALLY tries to pin the thief ROU through the head. Thanks for being patient with me D:
More actions churned, measures taken and calculated throughout the chaos. Deimos’s Life Drain unfurled again towards the stabbed and pierced Big Boy ROU – it hadn’t much mattered in the end. With nothing to do and nothing left to give, it perished where it had been stuck through, and he could wind his concentration and focus upon the remaining aspects – of which there were many to choose from.
Despite Hawthorn 's previous accuracies, his dagger throw went wide, landing with an audible clink against stone. This ROU, very much blind, didn’t seem to notice the sharp edges dangerously close to it, skittering away to help bombard. It launched towards the shield as well, but bounded off, and much like its predecessor, stood there stunned and stupefied.
Damien, hacking away at the newfound, embedded friend, just barely missed his own arm – managing to pierce and slice the ROU’s tail away instead, but hadn’t managed to dislodge the creature at all. It bit down further, hoping to inflict more pain and torment into the Accepted’s mind.
Theea ’s efforts wouldn’t be in vain though – as she mauled the cretin holding her dagger. It dropped the weapon unceremoniously, screeching at the top of its lungs for assistance from its brethren. Whether or not it would come remained to be seen – with one dead, one critically injured, and two stunned.
--
Pray for decent rolls ;_;
Big Boy ROU: 0/200 (dead)
Perfectly Adequate ROU: 81/110 (still on Damien's arm, though tailless)
Small ROU 1: 6/20 (Gondor calls for aid)
Small ROU 2: 4/20 (stunned)
Small ROU 3: 17/20 (still stunned)
you're all bronze and bite all venom and fistfight
He watches with absolute displeasure as the dagger goes wide. Perhaps he should have stuck with using his magic or practiced more with the weapon before bringing it here. Whatever the reason, he hisses, flinching a touch as the ROU launches into the shield nad bounces off, stunned in surprise.
So the courtesan grits his teeth, snagging the dagger with his telekinesis to try and launch it into one of the stunned ROUs as if it might have a better chance of hitting them rather than his physical abilities. At the very least something has to give, right? And if he misses again he might actually crash out about it. So he focuses and concentrates all of his energy into trying to aim it just right.
Thorn uses his telekinesis to snag his dagger and aims it at ROU 2!
Telekinesis (Abandoned/Hybrid): Can move small objects in a 5ft radius.
Type: Grey | Rank: Basic | Cost: Action
The rat wouldn’t let go. Its teeth sank deeper, a grinding pull that sent another bolt of fire up Damien’s arm. His breath hissed between his teeth, every muscle taut from wrist to shoulder. He could feel its jaw working, trying to chew through him like he was part of the temple wall.
Somewhere behind him Theea swore, metal shrieked on stone. Somewhere else Thorn’s dagger clattered. But up close it was just him and this thing.
He shifted his grip on the axe, blood slick under his fingers. The beast’s tail flopped uselessly against the floor where he’d taken it clean off, twitching like a cut wire. Its body pressed close, blind face buried against his sleeve, breath hot and foul.
“Fine,” he muttered through his teeth. “You wanna hang on?”
He slammed his knee into its ribs, using the shock to shift his weight and drive it down, pinning the squirming bulk against the cold stone. Pain lit his arm, hot and sharp, but he bore down harder, muscle against muscle, until it stopped dragging him.
Damien aims to pin the “Perfectly Adequate ROU” to the ground.
Weapons flew and magic adorned; vexations either reaching a peak or a calm semblance amidst the chaos. Hawthorn and his dagger launched into the second ROU, and in its stunned glory, there wasn’t much else to do but meet its ultimate demise. It sank upon the ground amidst the rest of its impending brethren, lifeless and still.
Damien tried a new approach, and while it didn’t wholly deter the Perfectly Adequate ROU, it certainly made a statement. Crushing it between the weight of himself and the cold, unmoving stone proved to be disastrous for the rodent, and it screeched and hollered in its agony, hoping for more valiant efforts amongst its kin. It wouldn’t find any answer – so it gripped harder into the man’s arm, hoping that would be enough. Maybe here the woodsman could deal the final blow.
And Deimos, very unimpressed with the remaining masses, unfurled the length of his Mastered Life Drain into the two left (not attached to arms anyways), watching as it leeched lives away with a snatch of breath and nothingness. Turning to Damien, he called out “Do you want help?” though he was fairly certain the Halovian would want to prove his mettle and might into massacring this specific individual. Chancing a glance at Hawthorn, he shrugged. “We can clean the rest of this up,” motioning towards the makeshift dens, as he maneuvered to close off the remaining tunnels. Maybe the other Abandoned could grab the corpses while the Sword began to seal emptied pathways.
--
Skipping Theea!
Deimos offers to help Damien, but otherwise he and Thorn can clean up the area while Damien does his killin’.
Big Boy ROU: 0/200 (dead)
Perfectly Adequate ROU: 62/110 (currently being crushed but very angry about it)
Small ROU 1: 0/20 (dead)
Small ROU 2: 0/20 (dead)
Small ROU 3: 0/20 (dead)
you're all bronze and bite all venom and fistfight
Thorn watches as his dagger slides into the ROUs that’s stunned, holding his breath momentarily as it finally sinks to the ground and he exhales that held breath in relief. Chancing another glance around, he notices that the only one that seems to be lingering is the one still attached to Damien – and as Thorn reaches to snag the dagger from the corpse, he waits to see if Damien needs some help.
Though, he too knows the other Halovian would seek vengeance. So he remains nearby just in case he does require help or healing afterward, nodding to Deimos’ instruction as he reaches out and gets his hands dirty, collecting the corpses of all the ROUs in a little pile that they could easily dispose of.
Thorn sees if Damien needs some help before he starts grabbing the ROU corpses and makes a pile of them to help clean up!
Between cleaning up the area, managing a burst of his magic to ensure the ROU Damien was fighting off was certainly dead, they could work in the midst of silence. Amidst the whole lot of them, they ensured portions and areas were cut off, effectively ending any future pursuits of the rodents, snagging at the corpses so they could be easily disposed of, and the Sword worked on returning the stone back to what it’d been prior. It took a bit more effort and concentration than it had to obliterate the pieces, but in the end, perhaps frequent Temple visitors wouldn’t notice the difference. They’d likely be content in not having the creatures ambling around their threshold and place of worship anyway. Small sacrifices to pay.
Heaving a sigh, he looked around, acknowledging and thanking his constituents. “Good work today. We can head out. I can treat you all to dinner,” and ensure everyone else was healed up.
--
Thanks for the help!
[FIN]
you're all bronze and bite all venom and fistfight
