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!
10-06-2020, 05:53 PM (This post was last modified: 10-10-2020, 11:12 AM by Morgan.)
There's nothing you believe you want
While she had been the one to ask for it, Morgan didn't quite know what the magical protection for the Citadel would look like. She could use magic, but not on that scale (as far as she knew, no human could); would it be visible? Would it freeze over, as it protected the Citadel from the cold? The first hint she received as for how it might look was that they had to build a trench around the walls, presumably for the edges of the dome: that it needed a physical accommodation of some kind.
Whatever it was she had to do, she was of course willing. Having out out a notice on the door of the Council Hall asking for help, Morgan waited by the gates. She'd already gone around with some architects to mark out the width and correct curve the trench needed to be, rope and flags surrounding the Citadel to create a line following that of the walls.
It felt good, to be working towards something. A goal that would really help her people, if it came to light, something they could all work towards together. Waiting to see who would come to help, Morgan leaned against the wall, looking up at the sky and imagining what it might look like come Deepfrost.
The sound of iron shots is stuck in my head The thunder of the drums dictates
Notices and changes, familiar and strange all at the same time; nuances he understood, and some he couldn’t yet comprehend. If this was to be where he healed, where he recovered, and where he started anew (bizarre, really, to think of the patterns that had led him here, reflective pieces of another life and time), then the Sword thought to forge onward. A quick check of the Notice Board indicated where to go and the physical labor required (the man had dug many a trench in many a war), and after a swig of springs water to ensure he wouldn’t lose himself amidst the work, the monolith trudged on. It might be a release, a quiet, cathartic movement and motion, to merely lose himself in motion and action, rather than fall apart within his own mind.
The Citadel, always an impressive sight, unfurled before him, and his gaze went instantly to the alterations already made, marks and curves, ropes and flags, likely indicators of where they needed to dig. A steady nod was extended to Morgan, a shovel snagged from his supplies already in his grasp. “Here to help,” was a rumbling proclamation, to start towards rebuilding proportions and contortions to his life, and to contribute to those who’d offered him an opportunity. Zuriel accompanied, mostly to watch (as she stood nearby, sniffing over portions of ground), but there in case anything went terribly awry.
The rhythm of the falls, the number of dead The rising of the horns, ahead
Loren had bundled up for once. Wearing a heavy fur cloak with thick, bulky clothes, he arrived at the designated meeting spot. When he saw that Morgan and Deimos were already there, the healer smiled and nodded at both of them. "Warden. General. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised to see the usual suspects here."
Turning to the Sword, the Firebrand's smile turned into a grin. "Congratulations, by the way." He saluted the other man.
Then Loren rubbed his hands together. Astra was behind him, and she bleated at the other two members of the small group. "So how're we doing this? Are we each taking a third or what?" He looked between the other two for instructions.
Fools rush in, so here I am
Very glad to be unhappy
"A quarter." Hester corrects Loren as she walks up, dressed ready to work. The first few times she'd answered the call fo the warden, she'd been woefully unprepared, but this time she has put a little more though into her attire, and her attitude. Her hair is pulled back, and every part of her outfit can be described as sturdy.
It's a different group every time she comes out, and she can't help but to miss Chulane, as she looks over the few gathered to help. A man she doesn't recognize, apart from seeing him around Snowcloak more and more often, and the once Launceleyn. Both are offered a smile, a touch less bright than the one aimed towards Morgan. "What are working on today?" Comes the curious question, Hester's calloused hands clapping together.
I can't win, but here I am
More than glad to be unhappy
Deimos and Loren, two of her council members, and Hester, a young woman Morgan was proud of indeed - she could hardly think of a better team for the job. Smiling at each of them in turn she looked at the marked out-dig spots, thinking over just how they were about to approach this. "My initial plan was that we could walk around together, actually. Share our skills to move swiftly around the perimeter..."
Perhaps it would be better to split up the work, though. Looking to Hester she explained, as she walked out to the first flag. "We are working on a secret plan for Frey, to help us here in the Citadel during Deepfrost. Our first task is to dig a ditch around the walls." Her voice was low, perhaps a little bit too much, to give Hester the impression that this was a matter of utmost secrecy.
"Maybe we should split up. Does everyone have an ability to help them dig? We have shovels and so on, of course. I have Earth Magic." Morgan looked expectantly at each attendee to see if they had anything to make the task easier as a solo expedition.
----
Show if you have anything that will help you dig out your quarter! (Items, Magic, etc)
No post Order
As another woman spoke up, Loren turned to face her. Nodding, he held out his hand for her to shake. "A quarter it is. I'm Loren." He smiled at the stranger.
Glancing at Morgan as she explained the task and the plan, the healer chuckled when the Warden asked if he had anything that might be useful. "How long have you got?" His eyes crinkled as he regarded her.
Then he grinned as he shrugged. "I've got water magic and summoning, which are probably the most relevant here. Compulsion too. A few other odds and ends." Looking around at them, he rubbed his hands together. "I can take the east side if we're splitting up."
If there were no objections to that, and they were splitting up, he'd head to the east side of the Citadel. Astra would come along, of course. Once he arrived, he'd summon a dragon, though he turned to face the walls and hold up his hands in a placating gesture as he did. The dragon would open its mouth, electricity crackling in its throat. Which it would blast at the ground. Once a portion had been cleared, it would dig into the ground, claws tearing furrows.
If they're splitting up, Loren will go to the east side. He'll summon a lightning dragon and use its lightning to clear the snow and its claws to dig.
The sound of iron shots is stuck in my head The thunder of the drums dictates
Loren wasn’t a surprise; there’d been a cyclical stance to their impacts and roles along the Grounds once too, back and forth in responsibilities, in abilities to help or hinder. The Sword nodded, the slightest of smiles etching its way in the corners of his mouth at the congratulations, not certain he’d earned it by normal means and modes. “Thank you.” But he’d do his best to ensure it wasn’t an error on Morgan’s part for offering the position, or on his portion for accepting it. Another joined, a stranger (which would be common for him; he hadn’t stretched his way through this earth yet), and he offered a hand, in respect, in unknown ramparts of potential camaraderie. “Deimos.”
And then he shifted his attention to listen to the task ahead, falling into line as they walked around the perimeter, eyes riveting, mind speculating, the steady maelstrom of machinations, calculations, and prowess reviving, returning, resurging from their break during ailments and afflictions. Secret plans, protection during Deepfrost, and digging a ditch – his brow arching on the furtive notions of it. An oath and assurance of specious emblems, another classified and confidential aspect melding into his skull and going no further. At the insinuations of what they held or contained, the beast could answer readily. “I have earth magic.” Or a shovel, if brawn executed it better than incantations. In display, a portion of the loam nearby receded, and then he placed it back, carefully, meticulously, concentration honed and refined.
--
Deimos shows that he has earth magic.
The rhythm of the falls, the number of dead The rising of the horns, ahead
Fools rush in, so here I am
Very glad to be unhappy
Both the unknown men offer their hands, their names, and the natural knows no other way to respond than to take each hand in turn, offer her own name. "Hester Mac Girr an Adhastair." Her voice is bright, and her eyes are locked curiously on the two men, wondering quietly about who they were, why they had come.
Morgan distracts her away from her thoughts though, Hester leaning in with the Warden, wrapped up in the magic and mystery of a secret, divine task, one for the good of all Snowcloak. She is all too eager to grab a shovel, squeezing it so tightly her knuckles go white, practically vibrating with excitement. "I... don't have anything. But I am good with a shovel." Nodding along with her own words, Hester hoped her previous dependibility would speak for itself, rather than her naieve attempt to add truth to her words.
Whether they decide to go alone, or work together is of no consequence to Hester. She can work in solitude, or chatter the ears off her neighbours while they dig. If they do decide to go alone though, and Loren summons his dragon, there is an immediate change in the girl. Panic takes hold, a single shout of warning going out, before she crouches, cowers as close to the ground as she can.
I can't win, but here I am
More than glad to be unhappy
Morgan let out a huff of a laugh through her nose at Loren's bragging, raising her eyebrows at the list. "Yes, that is quite enough." Why he then chose, with all those skills, to summon a dragon for his work was beyond her, but she was aware of all her councilmen's abilities and only watched it with a bored expression and a sigh, thinking that as long as the beast worked neatly she supposed she didn't mind.
With Loren set off to do his side, she turned to Deimos and Hester. "Perhaps we can take the right side together, then." Earth magic and Hester's shovel, all things that were of good use (she was sure to give Hester a smile as she passed, wanting her to be assured her help was still welcomed). "Perhaps Deimos and I can weaken the earth and you can neaten our digging, Hester." It was sometimes difficult to be totally precise with magic, and she hardly had much skill in it.
If she saw any anxiety in Hester at the appearance of the dragon she would sooth her immediately, tell her it was nothing to fear. Hopefully she would be calmed, because soon there would be a far greater problem: rocks, and lots of them.
Halo, with it's cold and harsh environment, was notoriously difficult to find good soil in, soon large rocks began to fly up into the air and block Hester's shovel and Loren's dragons claws, those that stayed stubbornly in the ground up to a metre wide. Morgan stood back and tsked, sighing as she hit one of them with the toe of her boot.
"We need a way to destroy these as we go, to prevent them flying up and hurting anyone else." While Loren wouldn't hear Morgan's evaluation, he would deal with the same situation: how would he handle it?
--------------
Deal with the large rocks in the ground/flying up into the air!
No post order.
As the shout of warning rose up, Loren immediately looked around for the source. Scanning the area, he shaded his eyes against the reflection of the snow. When he spotted Hester, he grimaced. Cupping his hands around his mouth, he dismissed the dragon. "It's alright! Don't worry, it's summoning magic. It's entirely under my control." With that he re-summoned the beast.
Which promptly began to dig up rocks. Groaning, he stepped away from the dragon. It opened its mouth, blue flickering at the back of its throat.
And then it blasted the rocks with its lightning. He sighed as the light flashed across the tundra and glanced over his shoulder to make sure no one else was freaking out.
Loren reassures Hester that it's just a summoned creature. When the dragon digs up rocks, he uses its lightning breath to blast them.
The sound of iron shots is stuck in my head The thunder of the drums dictates
Introductions made, nods granted and extended, names and faces committed to his memory, the time solidified into their tasks. Hester’s panic over Loren’s ridiculous summonings was understood; there was a tightness, a rigidness, drawn to his spine too, unbending, unyielding, at the presence of the dragon – but his reasons were deeply embedded in a cave, frozen to the core. He narrowed his eyes, and then moved along, the drawn impassivity pressing over his features in a resolute pretense, and once the beast was out of his sight, he could be content with their work.
His mastered prowess with earth; bizarre in itself, when he had no claim to it in his ancestors’ lineages, could prove to be some worth, digging, digging, digging into the soil and loam. It was far more difficult work here though, given the way Halo existed, and he’d pause within his concentration, administering subtle little breaks of breath, and then permitting his mind to hone in further again.
The tribulation with breaking apart the larger ones though would likely prove another strain on his faculties; merely because of the afflictions still contorted and coiled there. “I should be able to break them.” A little water embedded within might help too, by process of erosion, and so he cast both, intending to crack and tear them apart.
--
Deimos tries to use mastered earth and mastered water manipulation to break apart the rocks as they go along.
The rhythm of the falls, the number of dead The rising of the horns, ahead
Fools rush in, so here I am
Very glad to be unhappy
Explanations ring out, not only from Morgan but from the offending party as well as the dragon disappears. It takes a long moment for Hester to truly relax though, suspicious glances aimed towards the summoner, his freshly summoned beast, for a long while.
Distraction comes quickly, as her shovel begins to clang off rocks, small, fist-sized things at first, no more than a nuisance, but very quickly growing in size to something that she cannot handle, cannot move. An irritated huff leaves Hester, her shovel gripped tightly in her hands while she considers this newest issue.
She does not have fancy magic, does not have useful shifts. All Hester has is determination, and the drive to help out, to make things easier for others. Perhaps she alone cannot move the rocks, but she can certainly dig out at their roots, can loosen their stubborn forms from the half-frozen ground, opening the way for the others to use their abilities. And that's exactly what she does, focusing on the boulders not being worried about quite yet, digging away soil from their bases and destabilizing them.
Hester attempts to loosen the rocks from the ground to make it easier for others to break them down
I can't win, but here I am
More than glad to be unhappy
Together they faced the issue, those with magic and those without; Morgan smiled as she saw Hester work hard with her shovel, valuing her determination more than she would any fancy sorcery. The rocks for each worker would crumble away and cease to be a problem, Loren's dragon and Deimos' rather more subtle methods clearing them. Morgan herself helped too, digging ahead and getting the more stubborn ones out of place with Hester.
Eventually, they were making real headway on the trench; Morgan could see Loren in the distance, the two sides coming up to meet each other around the back of the Citadel. The grooves finally joined, the last metre or so being dug by all four participants; a quick walk around the Citadel satisfied Morgan that it had been even and successful all the way.
What the walk also showed her, though, was that the new lower ground was very exciting for Ningos. The birds had begun to settle down into the darker spots, glad for a break from the snow and predators; soon they were going to begin calling for even more to join them. Morgan sighed, knowing they'd have to be cleared out before they could begin laying the planks and beams in the trench necessary to strengthen it.
"Help me get rid of these Ningos. ...Try not to kill them." She called out to the group, knowing that while they were indeed, delicious, Chulane wanted a good population for his eventual farm plans. For her own part she began to walk along and shoot small blasts of water over them, surprising the birds enough to make them fluff up and hop out of the gap.
---
Well done team!
Next job: spook the Ningos away (but don't harm the integrity of the trench!)
As the two halves of the trench met, Loren smiled. Waving a hand, he dismissed the dragon. Taking a sip from his waterskin (which he had to thaw with his magic), he eyed the Ningos that had begun to congregate. Biting his lip, he shook his head at them.
Glancing at Morgan, he nodded at her instructions. Reaching out with his mind, the healer would try to compel as many of the stupid birds as he could with his mind alone. As he did, he began to advance towards them, both to extend the reach of his compulsion and to use more mundane means if this didn't pan out.
Loren compels the Ningos to leave.
Beastmaster | can compel any animal for assistance (6 large, 12 medium, or 20 small)
