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!
With the return of the sunlight comes the return of work and dedication. With all the materials gathered, they have one last thing to do - build the base of the structure for the hot springs. Evie doubts it will be too overly difficult given both her and Deimos have magic to manipulate earth and stone, but even with winter behind them, the ground remains stubborn and hardened with cold. Luckily, Halovians are a stubborn sort.
She and Deimos had been in charge of the water and volcanic rock during LongNight, and Evie sets down the bags of rock as they reach the designated meeting point. While they had some ideas as to the placement of the springs to keep them easily accessible and near roadways, their first order of business would be confirming one final location. For now, all there is to be done is to wait for others to join them.
- - -
Welcome to the PQ for setting up the base structure of the hot springs! Three Halovians are needed to complete this, but more are welcome. Deimos and Evie have brought the volcanic rock and spring water. Please write your character arriving, and any supplies they have brought.
With one final task ahead of them, the Sword dragged his sled, Zuriel, and Belial along. The companions needed a decent stretch from the clustered and coiled habits of Longnight, and the vessel contained the other necessities. Careful on his concentration, and not intending to jostle the water, his eyes flickered over the familiarity, and the changes, of the Fangs, before sliding back over to the Evergreen. “Noah, Sah, and I found an area around that corner,” dropping one hand off the sled’s roping to point off to the left. It’d been decent sized, and he’s already carved out some portions to unearth water and shrubs. It’d likely frozen back over in the interim of time, but the potential still remained.
--
Deimos brings a sled full of tools, and his companions.
you're all bronze and bite all venom and fistfight
Sah rolled his shoulders as he made the trek to the Fangs. Lilly had stayed home to watch the pups, but Pad had joined the hunter for the day. The wolf had grown to his full-size in the past season and trotted alongside his bonded with confidence. Picking up a familiar scent, he led Sah towards the others.
"Good to see you two. If I recall, we left rope lining the spot as well." It was a meager marker, but it was present, nonetheless. Hopefully it would help them relocate the location quickly. The Abandoned was eager to complete their final task to acquire a hot spring. He'd only been in one since coming to Caido and it had been fantastic.
~
Sah arrives with everything in his profile (minus Lilly) and a bag with his hunting gear (knives, rope, rations).
It was awkward as hail, but that'd never stopped Tal from getting a job done before. When he'd heard they were heading out to the location the springs would be set, the courier had loaded up the Peregrine with a shovel, pick, mattock, and a few different sizes of hammers and had set sail across the springtime sky for the Fangs.
Brisk was a good word for it, but the sky was clear and Boreal soon spotted the familiar red flame of Evie's hair alongside a unicorn. The dragon caroled a rumbling greeting and headed down to make her greetings while Tal worked the sails and brought the small two-seater down nearby, setting the ground-anchor and then throwing the rope ladder over the side to scamper down. He gave Sah a small wave and nodded warily to Deimos but kept his mouth shut, waiting for instructions while Boreal shamelessly gave both Wardens her best puppy dog eyes and sat as prettily as she could, scaly tail thrashing loose rocks around behind her.
Tal arrives with some tools, everything on his profile, the Peregrine, and Boreal.
It looks, at first, like you’ve stumbled upon just another ruined part of the Fangs. But no, peer closer - veins of gold run through the rock here, as if it has been inlaid with precious metal by hand. Carved words can be made out in other bits of the rubble, words like Mother. Light. Eternity. Glowing.
The other two join them swiftly, and Evie makes sure to wave and smile at both of them - and an extra for Boreal, who looks imploringly at the two Wardens. It's as she's turning to begin pointing out their direction towards the roped off section Sah had mentioned that she sees the veins of gold and carved words, and frowns. "We'll have to investigate that later, but all the more reason to stick to the place we determined earlier." Sharing a glance with Deimos that conveys her disturbance over it, Evie decides to leave it to the wayside for now. They have a mission at hand.
"First we'll need to break ground. Deimos and I have earth magic to help, but the debris we break up and levitate out needs to be moved aside. We've got plenty of shovels, big and small," she gestures amiably towards the sled full of tools Deimos had brought. "For ease we should all stick to one quadrant for now." Leading the way to where they'd made a squared off section of rope, Evie steps over the marker and sets to work with no further preamble, using her earth magic to disturb the stone and soil and begin shifting and breaking it apart to be pried free with minimal effort.
- - -
Our first step is to begin breaking ground in the cordoned off area. There are multiple tools available, so pick one (shovel, pickaxe, etc!) and assist either magically or physically!
There is no post order.
if this love does not call itself a wildfire then I don't want it at all
If Talyson’s appearance didn’t put him on a guarded edge, then the ruined bits and pieces nearby certainly did. His eyes narrowed to a scrutinizing degree, attention deviating momentarily, which Evie likely predicted, given the words thereafter. The inclination to simply set it ablaze ran full tilt through his veins, and he only dropped the brimming surface beneath his veins to inquire towards Sah. “Is this where you saw the Ascended shrine before?” They’d never managed to destroy it, not with everything else going on, so it falling into debris, or if was something else entirely, contorted into manifestations of the future.
Giving it one last contemptuous glance, he dragged the sled over to their roped off section, striving to meander his attention back to the task at hand. Collecting a long breath, he permitted the others to grab the tools they required, while Belial hovered, pondering whether or not to bother the dragon, and Zuriel looked on imperiously.
From there, once his mind was focused and honed, the earthen enchantments began to stir, enacting and concocting them into the foundations, intending to break the ground all over again.
--
Deimos contemplates setting the found thing on fire, refrains, and gets to work with his Mastered Earth magic.
you're all bronze and bite all venom and fistfight
It seemed there were no treats to be cadged today, and Boreal let out a mournful sigh before spotting a nearby Belial and perking up. The peryton could usually be counted on for a game of chase, at least... but a low whistle from Tal had the dragon reluctantly trotting over to his side as Evie explained the first task.
They were all momentarily distracted by the gleam of metal in stone and the courier crouched down to trace one of the letters curiously. "Huh." Cultists would have been his first guess, having so little experience with the Ascended himself, but Deimos's question to Sah had Tal jerking his hand back as if stung and scowling down at the inscribed words. "Oh."
Without a look back, he headed up to the Peregrine to grab his shovel - and a large section of spare canvas. Returning, he looked from Deimos to Evie and chewed his lip fiercely in indecision, but after his conversation with Hotaru over Deepfrost he finally sighed and tromped over to where Evie was working. Spreading the broad, heavy-duty cloth on the ground he began to shovel the loosened earth and stone onto the canvas. Boreal helped, carrying head-sized rocks in her jaws like a cat with a mouse and adding them to his pile until the canvas was fairly well covered.
Then Tal strung four ropes through rings in the corners of the canvas and headed back to the Peregrine. Pulling the anchor up a little ways, he drifted the skyboat over to where Boreal was waiting with the ends of the hawsers. She flew them up, one at a time, and Tal tied them off to the gunwales then lifted the nimble skyboat up a little higher and sent her towards a nearby canyon. Untying two of the ropes at the front allowed the canvas to dump its load before he brought her back around, dropping the other two ropes and the anchor near their current quadrant before starting the process again.
Tal uses the Peregrine to shift large amounts of broken earth and stone away from the worksite!
03-11-2023, 04:07 AM (This post was last modified: 03-11-2023, 04:07 AM by Sah.)
Sah
Sah nodded at Deimos, "Yes." He ran a gentle hand over the ruins, a solemn furrow across his brow. The emotions it invoked were complicated and far more than he wished to delve into at the moment. Especially when his friends all held blatant animosity. Was it so wrong that he grieved the lives that had been lost in the war, even those of his enemies? Taking a breath to shake the thoughts away, Sah returned his focus to the task at hand.
"I'll help clear the stones and dirt." As Deimos and Evie dug, the younger Abandoned used his telekinesis and air magic to pull the dirt up and out of their way. He began to create a pile of the debris, off to the side of their current quadrant.
~
Sah uses his mastered telekinesis and air magic to clear the earth and dirt that the others dig out.
The notion it could have been an Ascended shrine is disconcerting, but Evie is much like Sah - too close to those who had lost the war to feel the same level of vitriol. It's a task she will entrust to Deimos, and one she hopes will not remain in their minds as they set to work.
Luckily, the first wave goes well. Deimos and Evie break up the earth with their magic, Talyson's tarp angle does wonders, and Sah's magic gets the debris decently far from where they are digging. With all the combined help, the quadrant clears up quickly, helped along by the fact that Deimos' team had helped break ground when they'd chosen the area.
"While we work on the other half, we should start lining the bottom of this one, and placing the volcanic rock Frey had us collect." Straightening from where she'd been overseeing how deep they needed to go, Evie leaves for a moment to bring the sled closer. "We have clay in here that should be good for lining it." And a natural element to most hot springs, better than concrete. It would need to be smoothed out in a thin layer. Meanwhile, Evie moves on to the next section, repeating the previous efforts of clearing out the remaining stone and debris to reach the depth they wanted.
- - -
Good job team! The first half has been dug out successfully.
- There is one section left to dig out fully, which will need one person to help Evie.
- Two others are needed to begin spreading clay in the section already cleared so we can lay the rock down.
Pick a task and set to work!
if this love does not call itself a wildfire then I don't want it at all
Deimos mourned the loss of others, but he also didn’t forget the way things escalated, mauled, and decimated due, in part, to the Voice’s (and her constituent’s) actions. So he kept it tucked within the back of his mind, compartmentalizing it for later, leaving the irksome notions that hadn’t been present for so long to slither into other machinations. The confirmation from Sah was enough to signify he’d be asking next steps and actions; a consultation with a deity not entirely out of reach.
For now, there was other work to be done, and he took great care in ensuring his earthen incantations remained precise and consistent. Unfurling another breath when they completed another portion, he rolled up his sleeves, maneuvering over, following the pathways the Evergreen concocted. Between the pair of them, hopefully those fixtures would be ready for the next step in the process. Once more, he unfurled the contortions of his magic, digging out the frozen loam.
--
Deimos helps Evie dig out the remaining section with his Mastered Earth.
you're all bronze and bite all venom and fistfight
Deimos went to hang out with his girlfriend, so that stuck Tal with the jester. He rolled his eyes expressively, but a little grin tugged at the corner of his mouth as he went to check out the clay they were supposed to use. It definitely looked like clay, and it felt like it when he dug a handful out and hefted it thoughtfully.
"Haven't y'figured out Earth magic yet?" he teased Sah slyly before throwing his ball of clay into the half-dug basin and heading to grab his shovel. He attempted to give the other man a 'friendly' pat on the shoulder (and wipe the clay off his fingers) in passing.
Using the shovel, he moved clay from the sled to the pit, and then spread and patted it down into a thin layer. Boreal 'helped' by padding after him on each trip and leaving draconic paw prints in the clay that Tal grumblingly had to re-smooth over.
Though he might have left one untouched, off to the side. For decoration!
Tal joins Team Clay and uses a shovel to glop clay into the basin and spread it out/smooth it down. Boreal leaves a footprint in the clay!
Sah rolled his eyes and smirked at Talyson. "No. I've been too busy playing with fire." Holding out a palm, a flame sparked to life until a bar of fire hovered in his grasp. Closing his hand, the Abandoned let the fire dissipate. The mageglass at his neck cooled at the release of the magic.
Pad, who had previously been curled up and lazily watching, perked up when Boreal left her mark. Trotting over, the dark wolf slammed his front paws into the clay not to be undone. As his companion puffed up his fur with pride, Sah helped Tal with the clay. Using his air magic and telekinesis once more, he worked to spread the clay evenly along the ground.
~
Sah uses his mastered air and mastered telekinesis once more to help with spreading the clay. And Pad walks over just to leave a pawprint. (Without helping).
Things do not necessarily continue to go smoothly. Deimos and Evie encounter a clustered vein of granite that, as the hardest stone in Halo, resists their magic stubbornly. The last section of the hot spring base will need some extra work and muscle if they are to clear it out for the clay to be spread.
Speaking of clay, however...
Talyson manages to do a passable job of the clay, though it is streaky and aesthetically far from pleasing. Likely an issue with the shovel's indentations and sharp edges. Meanwhile, magic continues to make things difficult for the workers - or perhaps it's just fate, as a pocket of air in the clay pops while Sah is transporting it, whisked along by his air magic to spray over both men in small but thick droplets.
Luckily, both pawprints remain intact. Small mercies?
- - -
Bad luck, team! Evie and Deimos need to bust their butts on some granite, and it's clean up on aisle two for the clay team.
if this love does not call itself a wildfire then I don't want it at all
