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!
11-05-2018, 10:07 PM (This post was last modified: 11-09-2018, 02:24 PM by Ronin.)
After the initial chaos around the Spire, the ragtag group of Northaveners had eventually - in dribs and drabs - made their way to the jumble of ruins just beyond the obelisk. Within, it seemed, there might just be scope for them to get a roof above their heads and organise a central hub of operations. Ronin was still utterly perplexed by the fact that he had woken up in this grey and seemingly barren hellscape, but since it didn't look as though he was going to wake up behind the Wall again any time soon, he may as well do what he was good at - keep his people safe.
The former Captain of Training was positioned at the ruinous walls of the Sanctuary with those who had decided to come and help, scouting out what would need to be done. Eventually, he nodded and turned to address them.
"The parameter needs to be scouted, and these walls need to be built up and reinforced. There's a gate but that needs to be repaired desperately, and we'd benefit from some rudimentary defences. Any ideas would be welcome."
As you can see, there are three free spaces in this PQ - it's on a first come, first serve basis! Please post below to claim your space. In your first post, please also mention whether you will be scouting the parameters, reinforcing the walls, repairing the gate or searching for defensive weaponry. Ronin will take whatever is left.
Cel had decided to get her support to the man who automatically took charge of the situation. Ronin was always a good soldier with an equally good heart, but he seemed to be the only one who stood up and started really trying to figure out just what to do in their new...home? Whether or not this was temporary, Celosia wasn't sure, but regardless of the permanency, they had to survive.
"I'll take a look around the area," the duchess - rather, former duchess she supposed now - said giving him what she hoped was a slightly reassuring grin. She wasn't particularly wonderful at physical labor, though fighting was a skill she possessed, so she didn't want to get in the way of anyone who actually knew what they were doing. In scouting, she only really had to use her observational skills, which as a woman who grew up in the midst of politics, were pretty damned good.
Cel rested her hand on her sword that was becoming almost a reassurance to the young woman in the strange world. "Call if you need anything, Captain." The redhead turned on her heel to start scouting. It would he bit her tongue as soon as the title escaped her, and she realized that she would probably have to get used to calling people by their given names. Their lives before now almost didn't matter, other than to shape them for their new adventure. Something about that was strangely comforting.
Far in the distance is a sound like thunder. Thunder often carries with it the sound of water, and while this sound does as well, it isn't quite the same.
It isn't water. It's saliva. It's stomach acid. It's blood.
It is all of those things, but more important, it's hungry.
Keziah had volunteered himself to help build up the Sanctuary's defenses. A small group had gathered under the guidance of someone of clear importance. All Keziah knew of him was his name. Beyond that, he didn't much care. He wanted to be of help, so as the man, Ronin spoke what needed to be done, and after one of the women in the small group had volunteered to scout, Keziah spoke up.
"I'll take a look around, see if I can't find some weaponry lying around." He nodded at Ronin, and the others in the group, before leaving to explore the insides of the ruins.
While it might be the case that Edrei wasn't actually a guard here and that Ronin wasn't her captain, it still felt like she was, and that he was.
So naturally she followed along.
Listening as he gave his instructions, the Launceleyn girl nodded briskly. She might have gone on to do her task if it wasn't for the random who had shown up in their midst. Turning towards @Keziah, Edy narrowed her dark eyes. Not only did she not recognize the man, but he wasn't dressed the way the rest of them were. His clothes looked far hardier and not made for the snooty society from which the Northaven group had just some.
"Hold the fuck up." She said, her normally sarcastic and cheerful voice sounding hard and flat. "Who the fuck are you?"
Ronin smiled to Celosia and bade her farewell as she went to scout - he had met the Chancellor's Assistant (former, rather) once before and given her friendship with Ashe and her reliability back in Northaven, he trusted that she would do a good job of it. Before he could address the two others a purr of thunder - ethereal and ominous and everything he had come to sort-of-expect from this place - sounded in the distance. Ronin, caught by surprise, waited a second to see if anything further would come of it before he turned his attention back to the task at hand.
And of course Edrei was eloquent as always. The ex-captain let out a laugh and ruffled a hand through his dark hair, shrugging his shoulders to the Launceleyn. "Does it matter?" he asked. He knew that there were other people around... hells, some of them had appeared before the Spire with the rest of the Northaveners. Frankly, there was so much to do, if this person wanted to be of assistance, Ronin couldn't afford to be too suspicious.
"Thank you," he said to Keziah, glancing back at Edrei. "If you could try and reinforce the walls, please? I'll take care of the gate."
Celosia would find the perimeter around the Sanctuary to be a depressing and barren mess. There was an exterior wall once, it appeared, that would have given scope for guard towers and other such defenses, but said wall was in such a state of disrepair that it barely counted anymore. Still, as she walked something would flitter across her vision, some shadow, some... beast, perhaps? It might be worth investigating.
Meanwhile, Edrei would have her work cut out for her trying to bolster the aforementioned walls. She might need to find boulders or some suitable materials to repair the gaps and reinforce the structure as a whole. It might require some... creativity. What would her plan be?
@Keziah's exploration of the ruins surrounding the Sanctuary would, at first, be fruitless. But as he walked... wait... there! Up high on one of the ruined structures were a few full quivers of arrows. How suspiciously... lucky. He should probably fetch them.
Skeptically Edy looked from her captain, back to the strange man. Ronin sounded as calm and collected as always, but his affect wasn't catching. Or at least if it was, Edy wasn't biting.
They were in the middle of fuck knows where, building up defences, with some random? What if he was the enemy?! Licking her teeth, Edy took an exaggerated breath and raised her eyebrows at Ronin. She'd not argue with the captain in front of civilians (just lines of thinking were hard to break), but her upset was clear.
Stifling the urge to grumble, Edy set off towards the wall. Magic tingled in her fingers, but it wasn't the same as it was before. Originally her plan had been just to explode some of the boulders currently beside the wall in order to use the scattered remains as reinforcement. But ... that ability had already failed her more than once since coming here. Nibbling her lip, Edy tried to be more creative in her thinking.
With a grin, she snapped her fingers and went to work.
Ely's plan was to use the magic that she did know she possessed to try and alter the wall. Where there were holes, she'd disintegrate the stone to make the pieces higher up fit perfectly into the spots below. It would lower the overall height of the wall probably, but would make it much stronger.
The young woman frowned slightly, her eyes scoping the area carefully as she walked. It was a mess. It was dark and dreary and held an unfriendly energy that would warn most to stay far away. Of course, Cel wasn't most people.
She tried to built up the structures in her mind, to see what it had been before whatever tragedy had struck and shaken them to the ground, but it wasn't her strong suit. She could appreciate architecture and art and the like, but she was never really any good at actually envisioning what was not there, whether it had been once or not.
Her steps were nearly silent, and she never took her hand off the pommel of her sword. Her ruby cloak and bright red hair did nothing for the sake of camouflage, but she didn't really feel that she needed it.
Cel's attention snapped to the side, seeing a shadow whiz past her vision, and her brows met. She glanced over her shoulder in the direction from where she had come and pursed her lips. Wouldn't hurt to check it out. That was what she was supposed to be doing after all. She cast another glance backward and started after whatever bur she had seen, deciding to call if she actually needed backup.
{OOC - Will move this quest along because time, but if Ziggy returns before it finishes they can catch up :3}
Edrei 's plan turned out to be quite ingenious - indeed, those of her who knew her well might actually be... surprised. The work was relatively slow for one person, but her magic was doing the job very well. The only snag came when, in the middle of strengthening one particularly tricky part of the wall, a few large stones came loose and toppled from it. Right towards her. Oops! Maybe she should dodge. And maybe think about something to run along the top of the wall to stop that happening? And to stop people climbing it...
Celosia - the brave, the stealthy - she would be wise to follow after such a suspicious looking shadow, especially one so quick. As she crept in pursuit of it, she would soon realise that it had not been intending to hide from her. No... it had been a lure.
It swooped for her, wings outspread - wings dotted with... eyes. An enormous, oversized buzzard, the creature was obviously mutated beyond reason, and it squawked loudly as it tried to reach her with its talons.
Whistling to herself as she crunched the rocks down into quite the fine looking wall, Edy's dark eyes were drawn upwards by the scattering of dust.
And then fucking falling rocks.
'"SHI–" She began as she dodged out of the way. Or almost out of the way. One of the stones caught the back of her heel and the teenager let loose a bright array of colourful curses. Hissing as she turned around to look at the stone with a snarl on her lips, she immediately glanced over her shoulder to see if anyone had seen this rather awkward jump and jive.
Fuck sakes.
Grumpily, Edy looked around. There weren't really many supplies that would solve this problem (not from the teenager's vantage point anyways). Hmm, hmm, hmm.
So Edy just kept doing what she was doing. It didn't occur to her to make the wall unscalable (though she could easily add spikes made out of stone if someone where to point that out). However she was a bit more diligent about making sure the top was secure as she continued to work to lower the change of more shit falling down onto her.
OOC NOTICE: Due to the lack of activity on this PQ I am going to call it a day here. Those who got through their tasks for the most part will see the improvements in the Sanctuary's defences (reinforced walls from Edrei and a gate from Ronin) but unfortunately no one will gain credit for this quest.
