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!
There she is, invisible. And there Neron is, still in the ring. Her impulses fire and well - there’s really only one thing left to do in the Wraith’s mind and that is perhaps what should have been obvious from the first time she used her lasers - keep it from ‘seeing.’
Using her last round of invisibility, Wessex teleports across the ice to the monster, aiming to wrap her talon-ed hands and arms around its neck so her eyes can line up with its own eyes. It might be more or less an excessively dramatic tactic, forcing the monster to strike her to defend itself, forcing it to hurt itself in the process. Once the Wraith is (hopefully) latched on, she’ll seek the monster's eyes with her own, trying to burn vulnerable parts of it out and disorient the damn thing.
Hopefully it’s enough to keep the monster busy so Neron can once again attempt to get away.
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Wessex goes for the full-body attack and while still invisible, teleports herself onto the Monster’s neck, using her talons to dig into it and hold on. She then tries to laser-burn its eyes out.
Type: Grey
Signal Blocker | This chip blocks the biological signal from being sensed by the LongNight monsters once. While this chip is implanted the ascended is effectively invisible to the creature.
Magic: Teleportation | Can teleport to any board that Wessex has already visited, OR can teleport to an adjacent board that she's visited with someone else. If used within the same board, requires a 1-post cool down period between uses.
Type: Grey | Rank: Mastered
Type: Dark
Prosthetic Claws | Three sharpened blades made of an unknown lightweight metal have been embedded in the skin of Wessex's hands. By flexing certain muscles in her arms and hands the blades can extend and retract.
Magic: Angry Eyes | Can shoot laser beams from her eyes. Target must be within 30ft. Deals heat damage to soft surfaces, with a 50% chance to disorient characters if the light goes in their eyes (a dex roll on her part). Can also cut through small objects, and heat medium-sized objects.
Type: Dark | Rank: Upgraded
The world is new to you, and you to it. During PQ/PQ+/KQs/Drops, you roll with advantage on luck-based rolls and receive an extra name during drops. (In order to use this, make sure to note the ability at the bottom of each post)
liars and lovers combine tonight, we're gonna make a scene
Okay, cool. They hit the monster, nice. And the monster doesn't hit them, even more nice. But this bullshit fleeing-for-10ft-and-then-popping-back-up-like-a-daisy stuff? Neron's not here for it. He's literally not here for it. Glancing over his shoulder to where the remainder of his ice wall is little more than glacial rubble, he sees the monster across the way, but he's only using it as a judge to test just how far he's got to run.
Not far enough, he feels, if the thing does have him in its sights. But he forces his mind back on what he can do, and so he forces his legs to move again. His systems are spent and near exhaustion, but he uses the last of his strength to once again get the hell out of dodge. You can take it down. If anyone can, it's you, he sends to Wessex, in what he hopes are parting words (but, y'know, just for now).
Neron uses his entire action this turn in trying to fuck the fuck out of the KQ with his puny 11HP.
02-23-2021, 04:15 AM (This post was last modified: 02-23-2021, 04:37 PM by Court Official.)
key quest
Well, this is an absolute mess.
Neron pops back into visibility prior to Wessex 's rather clever means of distraction. So it knows where the Hailstorm is. The real question is, can it attack with any accuracy with a demigod hanging off of its face? Survey says yes (if by 'survey' you mean 'dice', but you get it).
It can. Because it's a fucking monster, and not one with an entirely organic brain. It has other senses too with which to detect the Launceleyn and unlike human-minds that forget, this one has the landscape precisely plotted.
So now that we know it can attack, the question is does it hit.
If there was ever a time to be lucky Neron, you fucking better thank whoever it is you think about when you're on your knees (morgan). The monster releases a black blast of energy that very nearly hits the Hailstorm. It goes wide, and Neron fucks off and out of the KQ.
Meanwhile, Wessex has her talons in the creature, her eyes blazing red beams of light into its own. It doesn't need to see her or even sense her, in order to try and grab at the space before it. It isn't some wounded animal; like Wessex, it doesn't feel pain. And so, knowing what she had done to those it started the fight with, the monster once again attempts to restrain her rather than injuring her. Quick as the queen is, she's able move herself in such a way that the creature is unable to pin her down no matter how hard it tries.
Your randomly chosen initiative order is: Wessex. You have 24 hours to respond.
Please keep your posts as concise and clear as possible. Remember, this is a KQ. You can spend words on introspection later. Keep things action-based, and refer to the KQ guide in the guidebook for information about our expectations.
If I don't specifically say how your character has evaded an attack, or where the damage is, feel free to add this flavour in yourself!
Somewhere, there’s vague montage-y, superhero-esque music playing. Somewhere. Many worlds away.
This could be a long thread of chipping away at the Monster’s health until it finally succumbs or does an explosion like the last cluster, trying to take Wessex with it. Or this could be a moment of bizarre, extreme decisions, because the Wraith usually oscillates between stupidly logical and stupidly extreme. And she wants this to be over with, it feels like it’s lasted a week and a half, not a couple of minutes (a night?).
Wessex abandons her efforts to blind the Monster as her invisibility wears off, trying to claw her way around to its back, where she attempts to begin to decapitate it by sawing through and destroy its processing connections with her talons. There’s a plan forming, she just isn’t entirely sure what’s possible and what isn’t anymore. What she does know is that it might be best to hamstring it as much as possible before taking the big(ger) risks.
Just for funsies, she tests out her Night Terror magic, curious to see if it has any affect on something this cobbled together. Is there anything monsters are afraid of, other than not existing?
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Wessex tries to climb around to its back and decapitate the monster by sawing through its neck with her talons. Tries her Night Terror magic out on it for funsies.
Magic: Night Terror | Can create nightmare-like illusions in the mind of one character within 5 ft which have the ability to petrify them in place. Illusions are only visible to that character. (A 30 END difference is an automatic success: characters cannot move or speak for one round during a PQ+/KQ, or 30 seconds) Difference of 20 is accompanied by extreme fear and associated reactions. Difference of 10 or below is accompanied by increased heartrate and anxiety-spikes.)
Type: Dark | Rank: Basic
Type: Dark
Prosthetic Claws | Three sharpened blades made of an unknown lightweight metal have been embedded in the skin of Wessex's hands. By flexing certain muscles in her arms and hands the blades can extend and retract.
The world is new to you, and you to it. During PQ/PQ+/KQs/Drops, you roll with advantage on luck-based rolls and receive an extra name during drops. (In order to use this, make sure to note the ability at the bottom of each post)
Like the creature is some toy on the playground, Wessex swings around onto its back, her talons dug deep into its neck. Comprised of circuitry and steel as it is, she'll have to really work to be able to saw her way through. Whether Wessex 's nightmare attack magic misses its mark or simply doesn't work, the queen won't know.
Things are getting down to the wire, and the monster knows it. That Wessex somehow is able to transfer damage back to it is something it will simply have to accept. Jumping into the air as sinew and cabling move out from it, the creature slams itself onto its back, squishing the queen between itself and the ground. Warnings of skeletal malfunctions echo through its sensors as it is disproportionately damaged by this attack, but nevermind. If it goes down, it is taking her with it.
Your randomly chosen initiative order is: Wessex. You have 24 hours to respond.
Please keep your posts as concise and clear as possible. Remember, this is a KQ. You can spend words on introspection later. Keep things action-based, and refer to the KQ guide in the guidebook for information about our expectations.
If I don't specifically say how your character has evaded an attack, or where the damage is, feel free to add this flavour in yourself!
Wellllll that kind of squish is no good. Groaning underneath the monster, Wessex teleports herself out from underneath it - and she knows exactly where she’s headed: to where the Infernbow came to rest after Edy burned herelf. Maybe it’ll be different this time, maybe her slight fire protection will help - maybe her more stable fluid? It’s all a gamble, isn’t it?
But let’s not be too hasty. She has no illusions about what the monster is capable of, even if it's lying on the ground. This next thing will potentially require every bit of health she has left. Best to add to it.
Instead of attacking the monster again, Wessex focuses on healing herself and collecting the crossbow and arrows.
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Wessex teleports out from underneath the Monster to where the Infernbow lies on on the ground. She attempt to heal herself and collect the weapon + arrows.
Magic: Teleportation | Can teleport to any board that Wessex has already visited, OR can teleport to an adjacent board that she's visited with someone else. If used within the same board, requires a 1-post cool down period between uses.
Type: Grey | Rank: Mastered
Magic: Healing | Minor cuts/abrasions/bruising heal nearly instantly. More severe injuries (broken bones, muscle tears, etc) heal at 50% the speed. During PQ+/KQs, heals at basic levels, with a chance to heal at higher levels depending on injury/luck.
Type: Light | Rank: Basic
The world is new to you, and you to it. During PQ/PQ+/KQs/Drops, you roll with advantage on luck-based rolls and receive an extra name during drops. (In order to use this, make sure to note the ability at the bottom of each post)
Wessex disappears, finding the bow, and healing herself. The monster is utterly without context for where she might have gone: pinning her beneath it was its only way of ensuring it could feel where she was.
Now as it rises, its eyes blackened and useless, it strains to listen. To feel. To in any way detect where the queen might be. For now the lifting of the crossbow and arrows is too subtle for it to detect, and so it merely hunkers in on itself, defensive and ready.
Your randomly chosen initiative order is: Wessex. You have 24 hours to respond.
Please keep your posts as concise and clear as possible. Remember, this is a KQ. You can spend words on introspection later. Keep things action-based, and refer to the KQ guide in the guidebook for information about our expectations.
If I don't specifically say how your character has evaded an attack, or where the damage is, feel free to add this flavour in yourself!
Is this the moment she’s been waiting for? Maybe. Taking out the adrenaline booster, Wessex jabs that baby into her thigh. A little something extra starts to zip through her and the Wraith tries to quietly pocket it again before loading and raising the crossbow, holding it as far from her as she can (keenly aware of how devastating Edy’s burn was) whilst still being able to aim properly. It's a risk she's willing to take, a sacrifice she's willing to make.
She doesn’t wait for the Monster to find her. Firing the Infernbow at its center, and then dropping the bow as soon as she can to avoid any residual fire, the demigod hopes to bring this to an end - or at least close to it.
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Wessex gives herself some Ascendasteroids and then fires the Infernbow at the monster’s center. She tries not to hold on to the bow for longer than she has to.
Type: Grey
Manufactured Adrenaline | a syringe containing a daily dose of adrenaline. Can be used once per thread. Raises all stats by 1 for one post and increases an ascendeds other senses for the duration of the thread.
Magic: Fire Dodge (FEAT) | Rolls with advantage against fire attacks
Type: Grey | Rank: Basic
Type: Dark
Infernbow | A wooden crossbow with the ability to set any arrows placed within to ignite on the pull of its trigger. (Made by Deimos)
The world is new to you, and you to it. During PQ/PQ+/KQs/Drops, you roll with advantage on luck-based rolls and receive an extra name during drops. (In order to use this, make sure to note the ability at the bottom of each post)
Off Wessex goes, and into her system the burst of adrenaline is shot. Faster, stronger, luckier, even. And she'll need it. Because her plan? It isn't her best.
The arrow is placed into the crossbow and instantly becomes ablaze. Sunlight is not fire, and nor is this an attack on Wessex. This is the queen holding a flaming weapon, and thus she's defenceless against the flames as they lick up her fingers and hands. Luckily the monster is similarly defenceless as her aim rings true and the arrow strikes the creature directly in the chest. Flames lick around the monster, creeping over its chest and scalding the precarious fluid that runs through its system.
Time is running out, running out, running out.
The monster gauges how very close to the end of its lifespan it is. The math is easy. Can it survive another attack from Wessex? Perhaps. Can it survive the damage splashed back onto it if it attacks her? Unlikely.
So it does the thing all good machines do. It fulfills its task.
Lumbering toward the queen on broken limbs—yet still possessing shocking speed and strength—a light begins to flash from somewhere deep within. A countdown.
And then the world goes white.
When the after glare of the explosion lessens, there is only one left standing. Or kneeling, perhaps; it was quite the fucking thing that just happened. Metal rains down from the sky as the near atomic-level devastation and debris settles. Almost like falling snow, bits of not-entirely-organic-matter fall gently from the sky. Somewhere far away there is the whine of metal as it burns and collapses on itself. A blue eye rolls listless and lifelessly into the snow.
Wessex is alive. And the monster is not.
Your randomly chosen initiative order is: Wessex. You have 24 hours to respond.
Please keep your posts as concise and clear as possible. Remember, this is a KQ. You can spend words on introspection later. Keep things action-based, and refer to the KQ guide in the guidebook for information about our expectations.
If I don't specifically say how your character has evaded an attack, or where the damage is, feel free to add this flavour in yourself!
02-24-2021, 06:20 PM (This post was last modified: 02-24-2021, 06:23 PM by Wessex.)
WESSEX
Go deep throat a cactus
White, white, white all around and Wessex realizes once and for all how much she now loves the dark. There’s been too much white this Deepfrost. If this is it, if this is the brightness before she shuts down for awhile, then can it just hurry the fuck up and fade?
Huh. Is it snowing now?
Her systems struggle on, blurry and hitching, crackling, shorting as they try to manage the damage. When she can focus, her eyes come-to on well, an eye (and just a burned-out eye) across from her face). She’s sideways on the ground, face pressed into ice and snow and a frozen, metal mess that will undoubtedly need cleaned up come Flowerbirth.
Maybe they can make something useful out of it.
She should be relieved, shouldn’t she? Her arms tremble underneath her as she presses herself up, and as soon as the Wraith is in a sitting position, she starts the healing process. The damage runs deep, the burn on her hand is no small thing and though she feels no pain, the Queen cradles it to her chest like a child as she takes in the silence and the magnitude of what she’s done. A random thought pops into her head as her mind drifts a bit, and she reaches out to Elide, wherever she is, with a warning. Elide, I'm an idiot, don't use the crystal. It'll kill you. She's lucky all of that didn't just kill her.
Everyone all right? she finally asks Neron, Edy and Peter. They won’t be able to respond, but at least they’ll know she’s made it. I have to check the Barracks, see if - if anyone’s still alive. If they’re okay. If they’re even there. Her mind-voice sounds ragged, tired, not-quite defeated, but on the edge of worry. She’s not sure how much she can help in this state, but she’d never say it aloud. Not right now.
Stay where you are. Does she know where that is? No. But it’s better than them running someplace else right now.
Gathering that damn weapon (who knows maybe Morgan can use it, if she’s there, maybe the Voice can alter it into something workable) up and slinging it over her shoulder, Wessex stands and tries to guage how much she’s been able to heal herself - wouldn’t matter if it was more or less, she’s going because that’s what she does - and disappears to what is hopefully the still-standing, monsterless Barracks interior.
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Wessex tries to heal herself, collects the Damnedbow and teleports to the Barracks interior, trading one KQ for another :|
Magic: Teleportation | Can teleport to any board that Wessex has already visited, OR can teleport to an adjacent board that she's visited with someone else. If used within the same board, requires a 1-post cool down period between uses.
Type: Grey | Rank: Mastered
Magic: Healing | Minor cuts/abrasions/bruising heal nearly instantly. More severe injuries (broken bones, muscle tears, etc) heal at 50% the speed. During PQ+/KQs, heals at basic levels, with a chance to heal at higher levels depending on injury/luck.
Type: Light | Rank: Basic
The world is new to you, and you to it. During PQ/PQ+/KQs/Drops, you roll with advantage on luck-based rolls and receive an extra name during drops. (In order to use this, make sure to note the ability at the bottom of each post)
