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!
Josh quite happily continued his poor work, too distracted by taking note of all he could to care about it, until Deimos approached. He'd assumed the man would be too busy to notice his failure until he was gone. "Right." He said in response, leaning down to pick up the piece that fell.
Sighing, he tried to actually put some effort in - he didn't want to make himself too conspicuous, after all. Maybe if he did well enough Deimos might let him look at the prison records later, or answer them questions about the cells. With that thought in mind he actually took some time on the work, lining up the boards and nails and hammering as consistently as he could.
--
Josh actually tries to do the work of patching up the holes this time.
Some portions of their carpentry were effective; Deimos’ precise measurements and calculations paid off in holes patched – Joshua’s less so, despite his increased attention, the nail still wasted, slanted, or busted through the timber with nothing attaching to the walls. Sighing, the Sword continued to pick up the slack, eyes catching on the sheer amount of holes remaining in the roof, slanted little beams of sunlight pouring in, and the remaining contortions on the side.
Loren’s efforts at expelling waste without the need of a broom were substantial and clever – the force of the water blasted away nests and remnants, the debris clustered together towards the middle of the floor, capable of being shuffled away into a broom pan. His control was excellent, and no one received a cascading drop upon them.
Unfortunately, that was where the success ended.
Sunjata’s skills with sweeping didn’t quite match his talents with compelling – likely meant to gather with Loren’s already swept aside detritus. Maybe his anger had come far too into play, and he wasn’t paying attention. Perhaps his focus wasn’t applied, understandable, given the nature of the task. For whatever reason, he tripped and fell over his own broom, long limbs scattering him near the cluster of fragments and refuse.
Weaver’s attempts to grab her wayward tool shouldn’t have been a problem. It was what remained and lurked amidst the shadows that was due to be the bigger issue.
A flicker of her flame danced across shadows, unveiling a creature that resembled a cluster of rocks and boulders, quite content to remain in the darker thresholds, inhabiting the prison’s residence since no one else had. But at the source of light, at the notion of flames, it came to life – hostile and tenacious, immediately unfurling from its crumbling fixations, large and imposing, conducting a brief, earth-shattering roar. It stared directly at Weaver, some menacing, glowering look in its eyes; a dim vessel, simply wanting the source of the fire to go away.
It began hurling rocks in all directions, most specifically at Weaver.
Deimos rose from his crouch at the initial bellow and howl – instantly into General prowess, gaze taking in the familiar demon. “Stone Golem. They do not like daylight.” At least, that was how they’d gotten rid of the one ensconced in the bakery’s basement; lifetimes before now. His eyes scaled along the prison, regarding it for weaponry and machinations now. It’d become the main priority for the moment; once they were rid of it, everything else could continue and prevail. Orders and commands bounded across his tongue, inherent, instinctual, marks of yesteryears and past lives, ducking as stones continued flying. “Joshua and Sunjata, can you take the boards off the windows?” It would permit more sunlight, and they would need to be replaced anyway. No loss there. “Loren, some sort of shield?” Then he crossed the room, intending to draw up his fire, positioning himself beside Weaver. “Help me lure it towards the sun?” The Sword presumed it wouldn’t care for the fire, and if they could go in the opposite direction, push it out of the safe confines of darkness, and into the patches of glowing rays, then they’d have a chance.
--
You’ve activated my trap card!
Deimos and Loren are successful in their efforts – some holes have been patched up, and the nests from the bats and rats have been washed away!
However, Joshua has failed to patch anything successfully. Sunjata has tripped over his own broom, and Weaver has found a stone golem! The stone golem is currently hurling rocks at Weaver, but also in all directions.
04-01-2020, 12:12 AM (This post was last modified: 04-01-2020, 12:16 AM by Loren.)
Loren paused in his efforts for the briefest of moments as Sunjata revealed Delphia's request. She did what?! Annoyance and incredulity filtered through the bond. Want me to talk to her, see if she'll let me...speak to Maea? That offer came tentatively, and the healer found himself gulping after making it.
As he swept the last of the water into a waiting pan, he glanced around to see the rest of their efforts were going. The answer was not well, but before he could move onto another task, rocks came sailing out of nowhere.
Spinning to face this unexpected threat, he reached for his magic. At the order to make a wall, he nodded. Then he hesitated for a brief moment before tapping into his summoning. A bear appeared in front of him. It rumbled into a charge, trying to interpose itself between the golem and the more vulnerable members of the team.
Loren summons a bear to try and block the stones being thrown.
dreams where you're murdered boy i know you heard it all before
Hearing Loren’s response is granted a pulse of thankfulness at the very least – that someone else understands the bullshit of the situation. But it doesn’t help his frustration as he exhales, attempting to sweep up some of the remnants. I doubt she’ll tell you what Maea wants to say to me. I saw her, briefly, in the corner of my eye. He wants to add more to it, to complain further, but he pulls the broom in quite the worst spot possible – long legs tangling with it that takes him careening toward the ground.
He picks himself up quickly after, readjusting his shirt briefly before something appeared to throw rocks at them all. Deimos’ information is granted a nod, the instruction another one, shifting to his bat form to try and reach the windows nearest him and abandoning the broom to everything else, reaching a window and hoping to pull the boards from it. If that works, he’ll continue to move on to try and remove the boards of more and more windows to drown the cells with the sunlight filtering in.
Sunjata picks himself up off the ground lmao and shifts to his bat form to try and reach the windows easier to remove the boards! (He'll move onto the other windows as well if things go well)
you shut your eyes to pain boy then just lock the fuckin' door
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.
I'm a lady, like whoa I could bring you to your knees
Of course she’d find a damn stone golem. It doesn’t take long for the thing to begin hurling rocks at her, and she ducks as Deimos begins barking orders. What a perfect general. He stays calm, and though she’s not panicked, she is annoyed at the rocks being thrown toward her head.
Demios comes to stand beside her, suggesting they herd the creature toward the windows. Weaver nods, throwing a fireball toward the creature but intending to land the fire behind, so as to shuffle it forward. She’s vaguely tempted to engulf the whole area in flames, but does not, given that she might set other things, and more to the point, other people, on fire too.
As she is throwing fireballs to try and shove the golem forward, the sound of something large comes pounding forward. A bear. Okay then. This was one hell of a strange situation. She glances back to see Loren, who has given her a bear for a shield. Weaver stays behind the bear, grateful for it’s large hide to deflect the rocks for her. She ceases to throw fire, and works with whatever is already behind the golem, rolling it forward and trying to send the creature toward the windows that would hopefully be clear.
Well, it seemed even with the proper effort and attention paid into his task, he wasn't going to succeed. Admittedly Josh still didn't care all that much. Maybe that was what was missing; something definitely was as the boards still fell and nails bent under his hands.
Something that he however did care about quickly appeared though: a fascinating beast that Deimos referred to as a 'Stone Golem'. For a moment Josh was simply staring at it, not listening to the man's instructions - as long as it wasn't throwing stones at him, he was free to inspect it; but then finally the words reached him and he decided to help out, thinking he might be able to see the creature closer when it was dead or subdued.
Walking to the nearest window (not in any particular hurry) he reached up to prise off the boards, using his forearm looped around the board to try and put more leverage in than he'd just have with his hands.
What started out so promising had become a mess. Thoughts of assembling the prison into something less abandoned, and more effective, were pierced and bludgeoned away at the menacing contortions of the stone golem. And while actions took place, some were more effectual than others, continuing to leave maelstroms and turbulence in its wake.
Weaver and Deimos advanced with fire and vitriol, flames intending to lure the monolith out of its shadowy jurisdiction – and the creature obviously has no intention of doing so. As they attempted to spring apart embers and cinders, to instigate and provoke some deep, inherent fear, the golem bellowed and roared before flinging rocks towards both mages.
And while Loren’s bear shield was there before them, it was as if the creature knew exactly who and what to hurt, the stones hurled and throne around the beast, intending to land blows upon Weaver’s shoulders.
Deimos wasn’t so fortunate either – one rock hurtling straight through the coil of infernos blazing through his hands, knocking him straight in the jaw. Perhaps it wouldn’t matter for a man that didn’t talk much, but the pain, the blistering nuances shuddering through his skull did amplify a hiss, a growl, an unearthly, eldritch rumble in the pit of his chest. One palm rose up to quell the aching contortions, hand coming away with blood.
Nothing new there then, and when he moved it from side to side it didn’t seem broken.
“All right?” He managed to mumble from the other side of his mouth towards Weaver. “Keep going if you can.” More fire for her, hopefully, and then he reached and pulled into other semblances for his incantations and attempts – life drain, pulsing and widening, maneuvering towards the golem in order to subdue it while the rest carried on in their plight.
Joshua apparently didn’t have much luck with lumber at all, peeling away boards but most only half there, nails stuck within. Sunjata was far more successful, the sunlight beaming into the room from the now wide-open windows. The Sword's eyes went towards Sunjata, and utilized the Attuned mind-link, ignoring the fact that he was still cross at the Flood. Can you help him?
Now if only they could get the damned thing over into those patches of sun...
--
The bear/meat shield Loren summoned failed to take any hits for the team.
Weaver has been assaulted with rocks to the shoulders. Deimos has been hit in the jaw.
Sunjata has successfully allowed for sunlight to stream into the prison! Joshua did not.
Deimos is currently attempting to life drain the stone golem. What else can we try?
04-02-2020, 12:27 PM (This post was last modified: 04-02-2020, 12:27 PM by Loren.)
Loren sent a pulse of understanding and sympathy towards Sunjata. Shit man. I'm sorry. Seriously, let me know if I can help.
As the bear failed to block even a single stone, the healer's eyes narrowed. Either the golem was smart or he was unlucky. Wincing in sympathy as Weaver and Deimos got battered, the Launceleyn growled in annoyance. His bear mimicked him. Then, because defense was never particularly his strong suit, he ordered his bear to charge.
It lumbered forward, hitting a surprisingly fast pace relatively quickly. His goal was to at least knock the golem off balance so that its throws went wide or it wasn't able to throw at all. However, he was also hoping to have the bear knock the golem into one of the patches of sunlight. In addition, he sent a bolt of healing magic towards Weaver.
Loren has his bear charge the golem to try and knock it into a patch of sunlight. He also heals Weaver from a distance.
I'm a lady, like whoa I could bring you to your knees
The rocks sail right over the bear, and maybe she should just engulf the whole stupid prision in flames. If it were just her and Deimos here, she would, but the rest of her companions probably aren’t quite so flame-resistant. She ducks as more rocks are hurled toward her. Some land on her shoulder, and she grunts, though there is little damage done besides scrapes and bruises. She had every intention of ignoring the pain for now, but it disappears quickly, and she glances back to Loren with a nod of thanks.
The bear charges, and Weaver continues to work the fire. She grows the fire behind the golem, trying to force it to move toward the sunlight. The fire becomes a small, contained inferno, something you might see in the large hearths of Halo. A waste of firewood, Korbin would tell her, though there’s no firewood beside the handle of the hammer, which was clearly going to be a victim of this fiasco.
***
Weaver grows the fire behind the stone golem, trying to force it to move.
dreams where you're murdered boy i know you heard it all before
I will. He offers to Loren before he’s moving, body contorting to different forms to better reach the windows around the cells, shifting back to himself as he tears the boards from the windows and prepares to move onto the next. Rocks ping against the stone sides, bouncing off and Sunjata clenches his jaw again this recent development, gaze flickering over toward Joshua and the way the other man seems to struggle with removing the boards.
Deimos’ words flicker in the back of his mind and he sends a pulse akin to yes back, moving over the best he can toward the man he’s not met yet, shorter than him by nearly a foot – reaching over to help. “Here, let me help. Get the bottom ones and I’ll get the top.” He offers to Joshua before reaching up to try and remove the boards up above.
Sunjata tries to help Josh remove the boards of the next set of windows!
you shut your eyes to pain boy then just lock the fuckin' door
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.
Likely due to his fascination with the Stone Golem distracting his hands away, Josh was not very successful with his work. That light would hurt or somehow hinder the creature was interesting enough that when Sunjata successfully unboarded the windows he paused to watch how the Golem would react.
He was taken away from his studies by Sunjata coming to help him and Josh stood back, initially ready to just let him take all of the work so he could spend his time doing something more useful...but then he sighed and followed the instruction he was given, not wanting to ruin his relationships with the townfolks just yet.
With a sigh, he reached up to remove the bottom boards, putting as much strength as he could into it.
--
Josh tries to remove the bottom boards while Sunjata does the top!
Despite the flare and pulse of his life drain, the stone golem didn’t seem even remotely bothered, continuing to escalate its hurling tirade – gleaning more and more holes into the prison, or harpooning everyone else with rocks. He clenched his jaw, regretted a second after, and delivered a harsh, lingering sigh. The Sword immediately went back to utilizing his fire, pushing, pushing, pushing towards the monolith.
Loren wasn’t having much luck either. Instead of the golem being knocked aside by the bear, its massive, brawny surface seemed to disregard paws and claws entirely, shoving its might into the bulky animal.
Weaver, however, finally found some luck, her fire making an impact on the golem’s movements. It shuffled to the wall, attempting to get away from the conflagration – and combined with the efforts Sunjata put in, ripping the boards from the top (not Joshua, unfortunately, who once again couldn’t seem to do anything with the bottom boards). One of the golem’s feet slipped into the patches of sunlight, with an immediate howl, bellow, and roar following.
The foot began to disintegrate into dust, and still, the golem fought on, bending, swaying, sliding slowly down, unsteady, onto the floor. It attempted to right itself, crawling haphazardly, grip and grasp on nothing churning it towards an end.
“More light,” Deimos considered, and if all of them could somehow continue to combine those efforts, then maybe it would be over.
--
Deimos’s life drain missed. Loren’s bear received a massive shove from the golem. Joshua’s attempts at pulling apart boards continued to fail (bruh why).
Weaver’s fire pushes the stone golem towards the patches of sunlight, and combined with Sunjata’s efforts with the boards, the golem’s feet begin to disintegrate.
As the bear failed to do anything to distract the golem or block its stones, Loren growled again in annoyance. Although it was probably futile, he had the bear target its remaining limbs, hoping to try and hamper and harry its movements to give the rest of them a chance to take it out.
At the same time, he nodded at Deimos' command. Dashing to the nearest window with a plank, he tried to pull it off with a combination of his physical strength and his telekinesis, neither of which was that strong. However, together they might be enough to lever off the wood.
Loren tries to hamper the golem's movement with his bear. He also attempts to pull the planks off windows with his hands and his telekinesis.
dreams where you're murdered boy i know you heard it all before
The boards move away and the golem itself still continues its attack. He pauses as Josh begins to try and remove the boards, only to watch as it falters and the boards aren’t removed. But the golem has distracted him again and he moves, then, to shift toward getting out of the streaming light of the top of the window to let more in. He reaches for the bottom of the boards, the ones that Josh had tried to remove but couldn’t – for whatever reason – and aims to try and tear those out of the window as well.
At the same time, Sunjata reaches out with his compelling, hoping to latch onto some of the bats that he had gotten to leave the prisons, to hopefully return and flutter around the golem’s head to distract it from its attempts to right itself.
Sunjata tries to remove the board that Josh failed to, and tries to compel some of the bats to return to distract the golem from getting back up.
you shut your eyes to pain boy then just lock the fuckin' door
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.
