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!
Lightning and fire rain down on the landshark in quick succession from Sunjata and Haai. There's no time for even a cry of pain from the creature as Ronin 's starbolts summarily obliterate it leaving only the smell of charred meat and a few scraps of the beast's rubbery skin on the otherwise unbothered expanse of desert.
Echoes of this incredible execution rumble across the sand like the last dregs of a thunderstorm. If there are other landsharks in the area, will they be drawn by the noise, or inclined to avoid it?
Ahead in the boneyard, the vast graves lay gleaming in the sun. Bleached white and with the promise of more below them not unlike icebergs, they wait silent for your arrival. Perched upon a spine that juts out of a dune is a shangyang. Massive and blue, it watches you with uninterested eyes. Nevertheless it is an ominous sign to behold.
You have 24 hours to reply. Remember to include a summary at the bottom of your post with all action taken. If weapons/upgrades/abilities/items/shifts/etc are used, please include their desc. from your profile at the bottom of your post as well.
'cause we might as well be blind, if seeing is believing, this parable's misleading
They make a good team, Sunjata finds, when it comes to absolutely decimating the land shark. He can feel some appreciation from Haai as she circles back and the Flood pulses his own sense of accomplishment toward Ronin, banking in the hot wind of the desert to head back on track with the rest of them. There’s bones in the distance and another one of those ominous pale birds, and the dragon shifts a bit closer to it as it stares.
Over there. He focuses his attention toward the boneyard, but there’s a nagging sense that has him wanting to find out more about the bird. So he banks closer to it, reaching out with his Attuned abilities. Is there anything beneath the bones here? He asks the bird curiously, circling around it as it perches on a spine jutting out of the middle.
Sunjata points out the bones and circles the Shangyang, asking it if it knows if anything is underneath the bones!
Beast Speaker | Can speak to rare creatures/companions/regular animals. Requires permission to "speak" on behalf of someone's companion. Regular animals speak in varying levels of coherence.
you've got your shotgun loaded with excuses — that you'll fire in vain — but those 12 rounds just won't do
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.
It's overkill, but then again with Sunjata and Ronin on the offensive, it was never going to be anything but complete devastation. If I sue you, I will just be left with clothes that do not fit me and your axe. Remi complains to his husband, flashing the man on a cloud a wide, white smile. So no, he wouldn't be suing the Huntsman, and given that the danger had been dealt with, he wouldn't even be angry about it.
Glancing toward Sunjata as he circles the bird, the manticore twitches an ear forward as if that might somehow give him access to the Flood's abilities. It doesn't of course, and whatever the bird may or may not say in response is utterly lost on him.
Is anyone particularly good at digging? Remi calls, wondering what other shifts Aurelia might have, but assuming that the menagerie that was Sunjata, would likely be of help.
Remi asks if anyone is good at digging.
get out of my waters
Coding base by Sky!
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
everyday can be a better day despite the challenge
Her head peers up over the puffy cloud to watch Sunjata and Ronin make quick work of the landshark, eyes stretching wide as her ringed tail kinks up. Whoo! Take that! She pipes up, thrill pulsing from her end of the bond.
Sunjata moves to communicate with the bird and Aurelia is interested to see what the answer is when Remi asks a question.
Well... I wouldn't say digging is a talent of mine, but.. this shift has long claws. Or I can try the tiger,{I][/say} there's the hint of a mental shrug to her words, {I]I\'m sure we can do it if we work together.[/say} She glances around, notably toward the bird and Sunjata, more curious about where they'll be digging as opposed to if they can.
Aurelia gets excited about the landshark being blown up and offers to help dig in either of her shifts.
It's gonna get difficult to stand but hold your balance
Absolutely take that. Ronin is grinning as the landshark succumbs to what some might (correctly) argue is overkill, but he prefers to think of it as a little bit of fun between friends. Indeed, the Huntsman is so pleased with himself that he can only direct that same grin at the manticore flying nearby in response to his snark - he'd like to argue that Remi would probably insist on taking a lock of his hair for good measure, but now isn't really the time or place.
Anyway, digging. Apparently, anyway, since Ronin has no idea that Sunjata is trying to have a conversation with a creepy bird. I think between a dragon, a manticore and a tiger you should be able to make short work of any digging, he says slyly. I can supervise, of course. Do you have any idea where we should start...? As he speaks he directs the nimbus closer to the others, staying sharp for any fresh danger.
Having gotten rid of the landshark, Ronin scouts out any new danger and suggests he supervise this digging task.
What the shangyang might have told Sunjata, we won't know at present. As the massive dragon swoops down toward the bird, it, not wanting to die, instantly takes flight. Wouldn't you, if you'd just seen the dragon kill a landshark and then set its sights on you?
The bird flies 30 or so yards away. Will you follow, Sunjata?
The rest of the team...talks. Great communication, but time's a wastin' team. Lets get to it.
You have 24 hours to reply. Remember to include a summary at the bottom of your post with all action taken. If weapons/upgrades/abilities/items/shifts/etc are used, please include their desc. from your profile at the bottom of your post as well.
'cause we might as well be blind, if seeing is believing, this parable's misleading
He absolutely should’ve thought about that, but perhaps he had hoped his voice ringing out might have kept the Shangyang nearby. Either way though, the bird takes off and there’s a shouted hey, wait! that slips from Sunjata as he redirects his course, shifting into a less threatening shift of his macaw.
But they have a job to do, a task at hand, and the Flood realizes soon after that he can’t just chase after the bird despite how much he wants to. So to the sandy desert below with Haai, he shifts back into his dragon form, using his wings and haunches to help him balance as he and Haai get to digging in the sand, starting just below the bit of spine that’s sticking out of the ground.
Sunjata hopes that the bird might come back but focuses his attention on the bones and begins digging with Haai, still wondering where the bird is going.
Beast Speaker | Can speak to rare creatures/companions/regular animals. Requires permission to "speak" on behalf of someone's companion. Regular animals speak in varying levels of coherence.
you've got your shotgun loaded with excuses — that you'll fire in vain — but those 12 rounds just won't do
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.
No, I absolutely have no clue. Remi hums cheerfully to Ronin. Pillows aside, I do not have any idea what it is we are looking for. He thinks toward Aurelia, mirroring her mental shrug. I do not know if we are digging up an item, looking for a secret entrance somewhere, or searching for a grave. Their own graves, had the landshark had its way.
Pausing, Remi shifts back into his own body and looks around. Really looks around. He takes in the monolithic spine jutting from the sand, the way the shadows fell across the ground, the sounds and smells. What is it you sent me here to find? he wonders silently to Mort, not expecting an answer.
Remi uses his INT 2 to try and figure out where they should dig.
THE LULLABY
i’ve been chasin the storm of a lovesick lonely lie
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
"I'm going to be a bit disappointed if it's not a pillow at this point," Ronin informs his husband with a smirk, watching as Sunjata abandons his attempt to make friendly with the shangyang and Remi puts on his thinking cap.
He could help to dig as well, but if it turns out that's not what they're meant to do, it could do more damage than good. (That and he honestly doesn't know what will happen with two dragons in the middle of the desert, and Ronin's hold on himself in that form is tenuous at best).
So he settles for urging the nimbus to fly higher, following the path of the spine that juts into the air to try and scout out anything around them.
Hey wait! and miraculously, the bird does. Watching as Sunjata shifts, it seems to calm and ease. Perhaps it would be willing to ..answer...oh. Nope. He's a dragon again. Squawking unhappily, the bird takes flight, landing 30m away on top of a large skull. Meanwhile, Sunjata and Haai begin to dig.
Remi and Ronin both put on their thinking caps and...learn things.
As the dragon and griffin begin to dig beneath the spine, the bones shift and groan around him as the sand settles and resettles. Given his strength and size, he's able to quickly clear out a fairly deep hole.
On his cloud, Ronin will just be able to make out a slight change in the sandy vista as two lines appear in the sand where the height has changed. Almost like something is moving beneath it.
You have 24 hours to reply. Remember to include a summary at the bottom of your post with all action taken. If weapons/upgrades/abilities/items/shifts/etc are used, please include their desc. from your profile at the bottom of your post as well.
'cause we might as well be blind, if seeing is believing, this parable's misleading
The bird is forgotten momentarily as Sunjata focused on digging with the griffin. Both Remi and Ronin pause before following suit and there’s a part of Sunjata that wonders whether or not he should’ve waited. In fact. As the bones shift and groan around him, he does pause once the hole is dug, his broad head rising to peer up at Ronin and Remi, working his jaw as his talons pause in the sand. Find anything? He asks them before doing the same.
He stops digging, ensures Haai stops too, and takes a second to look around the hole he’s dug for anything that might seem out of place or might seem dangerous. Hopefully it’s nothing they can’t handle, and if it’s a land shark? Well, Sunjata’s already got quite a few shark bite scars dotting his skin.
Sunjata and Haai pause in the hole they’ve dug so he can also use his INT 1 to scan the hole for anything of note!
you've got your shotgun loaded with excuses — that you'll fire in vain — but those 12 rounds just won't do
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.
Appraising the bones and their positioning, it occurs to Remi that if they were looking for something hidden beneath the earth, they needed to be looking for signs of an item being displaced. I think... The alchemist pauses, raises his great leonine head to appraise the spine that Sunjata was currently digging beneath. I think we should dig over here. Not where the body had begun to sunk into the ground, but where it was being pushed up.
Pushed up by something.
Leaving the hole Sunjata had been working at and instead moving to the top of the spine where it arched and pointed into the air, Remi looks at the bone curiously for a moment before a slow smile spreads across his face. I'm going to try and go through it. He calls silently. Closing his eyes, Remi's body begins to fade and then darken. Cloaked in a robe that seemed devoid of colour it was so gray, his face had become entirely covered by shadow despite how the sunlight should have been easily permeating through. Reaching out, the wraith tries to walk through the spine to see what might be within/below it.
Remi becomes a wraith and tries to walk through the top of the spine using: Bereft of Body | Can pass through solid creatures and objects at will, causing a Life Drain effect (Mastered)
THE LULLABY
i’ve been chasin the storm of a lovesick lonely lie
Speaks with a thick Italian accent.
Force and magic can be used against Remi without permission.
08-25-2021, 05:30 PM (This post was last modified: 08-25-2021, 05:31 PM by Ronin.)
RONIN
Digging commences, and from Ronin's vantage point he's able to see the sand slither and move around, his eyes narrowing suddenly. Careful, he calls out towards Sunjata and Haai. The movement is going to draw more landsharks. I'll see if I can distract them. In the meantime it looks as though the Flood has stopped his progress downwards anyway, and Remi is busy wraithing his way through the bones.
Find anything fun? he asks, all the while directing his nimbus a little further away that he might fire three stray starbolts as far from the pile of bones as he can get. Hopefully that keeps them busy. If we do need to dig any more, let me know and I'll try to keep them busy.
Ronin warns about the digging drawing the landsharks. He rides his nimbus away from the bones and directs three starbolts out into random points in the sand, hoping to keep the landsharks distracted.
Magic: Nimbus Call | The user may call down one of the clouds from the sky and ride upon it. The cloud will hold Ronin and up to one other person.
Type: Light | Rank: Mastered
Magic: Shooting Stars | The user may summon celestial energy as a projectile. Control is excellent, and multiple projectiles may be created at once. (In quests or other combat situations requiring dice rolling, only 3 stars may be created per post).
Type: Light | Rank: Mastered
Sunjata pauses and puts on his thinking face, while Remi makes his disappear entirely. Disappearing into the massive bones of the creature, the alchemist will find the strangest thing: a stone circle that very much looks like a modern-day manhole cover. It's covered with words written in a language he can't read, though there is a large AW inscribed in the stone with a dagger used for the bar of the A.
As Ronin shoots his starbolts out at the sands, three landsharks jump out from the ocean of orange as if they might snap at the fleeting pulses of light. For now, they swirl beneath the surface and come no closer.
You have 24 hours to reply. Remember to include a summary at the bottom of your post with all action taken. If weapons/upgrades/abilities/items/shifts/etc are used, please include their desc. from your profile at the bottom of your post as well.
