From being an Abandoned who had rarely left the Hollowed Grounds, to embracing the call of adventure, to dying and being reborn first as an Ascended and then as an Ancient, Maea has gone through quite the amount of changes in her life. One thing remains common, though, in her attempts to find out just where she belongs; she’s always had a craving for knowledge which has brought her to so many places and to meet so many people here in Caido. We can’t wait to see what else is in store for her!
Congratulations, Maea!
Credits
Court of the Fallen was created in October of 2018 by Odd, Honey, and Crooked.
Skinning and hosting by the epically talented Kaons, and functionality fanciness by the coding magic of Neowulf. If you ever see either of them around, make sure to show them some love!
Of fucking course. She zooms toward the Punking, fireball blazing and burning and blackening. She doesn’t see Sam, doesn’t know or notice as he blocks some of the vines. She’s too far into attacking and aiming her fire toward the base, hoping to burn it from the inside out. But something happens, and of course it does. The Punking rocks and rakes, edging and bouncing.
She doesn’t notice it before it seems to hop — sapphire gaze following it as though it’s like slow motion. Eyes shutter as it comes down and she’s too slow to do anything.
It lands and cracks and something breaks, a strange kind of sound. No pain, no thoughts other than what? and something leaks. She’s suddenly so glad she doesn’t have to breathe, so glad that there’s no pain. But she feels immobile, one arm and leg not moving (whether they’re pinned or broken she doesn’t know) but she manages through it to use her good hand to try and scrape away at the inside of the Punking.
She doesn’t have the ability to scream her frustrations, doesn’t have hardly anywhere to move. But she tries hard to scrape away, to dig herself out. She doesn’t plan on dying under a fucking pumpkin of all things.
She kind of tries to dig her way out of the pumpkin with one working arm :|
There were some triumphant moments mixed within: the beautiful arrows Remi ignited, the feeling of flying into disaster and devastation, the sensation of harmonized havoc and upheaval as fire erupted into the pumpkin sovereign’s being, and she whooped, she pumped her fist into the air, she patted Remi’s neck, she dreamed of seconds and instances like this –
And then it went to hell.
She watched it topple, watched it fall onto its side, but then, there was Rexanna, beneath its clutches, its hold, its weight, and she screamed, a loud, banshee, Amazon shriek. “Remi, we have to go get her!” She prayed he understood, she prayed that he agreed, because that was all that mattered in the moment – she had to be okay, she had to be okay, and the guilt weighed on her shoulders and tore into her bones. Her legs locked around his sides, clutching, holding on for survival, hands otherwise occupied by the weapon in her hands. She notched another arrow, glistening embers and coils shining behind her, but she couldn’t care right now, couldn’t reflect on its treachery, on its beatific creation, too immersed in the potential of death reigning over the world again. She let it fly, hoping it hit at any point –
Hoping Rex was all right.
--
Melita urges Remi to go back down so they can get Rexanna, and shoots another fire arrow towards the pumpkin.
The pitch of Melita's voice sailed above the fray and into the beast's ears. Rumbling a note of agreement, the alchemist-turned-manticore wished that the rows of sharp teeth would in any way support speech. Growling something guttural which, in Remi's mind sounded like hold on, but was really just a wet and horrifying snarl, the manticore attacked.
Rounding about the punking, Remi flew directly at it with as much speed as he could muster. His hope was to try and hit it with enough force to cause it to roll backwards and off of Rexanna (and unknowingly, also Sam). With claws hopefully sunk deep into the orangey flesh, the manticore would claw and bite and barb with as much force as he could, while continuing to flap his mighty wings to try and encourage the gourd to roll backwards and off of his friend.
Remi flies at the punking and tries to roll it back, while bite/claw/tail attacking.
find me on the rocks when you break down
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
Sam was at first rather pleased to find his plan to help Rexanna was working. While she might not know he was helping, it still felt good to be assisting, batting vines this way and that and being useful even without a weapon of his own.
Then he was hit - the whack took him off his feet and to the ground. Sam cringed, the upgrade he'd so often thanked Remi for now shooting pain through his body, the shock of it turning him visible; not that it really mattered for shortly afterward, the pumpkin fell on top of him. Everything was dark and heavy - he could only be grateful that he did not have to catch his breath with crushed lungs.
After a moment of self pity, he became aware of a scraping sound somewhere nearby - best he could, he tried to slide himself towards it, until he saw Rexanna digging up into the flesh. He joined her with a nod (or as best as he could get in the awkward position) and clawed away at the weight above them, trying to carve out a hole to manoveur in.
The punking flailed, its vines snaking out to try and smack at the manticore, but not only did it miss - it missed spectacularly. Its roar of distain was more of a gurgle as it was shifted, moved, punctured with claws and fiery arrows and a tail that really needed to just stop. And as Remi heaved at it, he would succeed in bowling it away from the two Ascended, even if it was just enough for them to get free.
Gravity did the rest, and as the withered and mutilated punking slapped back down, it buckled beneath its own broken flesh and spilled its guts all over the outskirts.
Its blackened, blight-infected guts.
If the creature had made it into the Greatwood, the spread of the blight would surely have been much more widespread. And much more dangerous.
CONGRATULATIONS, GANG! You have completed the KQ and you all receive credit! Alongside this, as thanks for protecting the Greatwood, each of your characters will receive a magical item of your choosing, courtesy of the Lady Arduinna.
Please await a thread from Arduinna to post your item requests, but feel free to discuss them with the admins in the meantime!
