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!
05-25-2023, 10:52 PM (This post was last modified: 05-31-2023, 03:14 AM by Sohalia.)
Sohalia
Well, her friends had been right. The Feverlands stank.
It wasn't that Sohalia thought they'd been lying, exactly, but there was hearing and there was seeing, and she hadn't believed them until she'd seen it with her own eyes.
She was seeing it now, though. And smelling it.
She made her way carefully through the swamp, trying to watch where she put her feet through the putrid gas that settled everywhere she looked. It was difficult terrain to cross, and despite the fact that Soh was growing to be an experienced explorer, she was trying to be mindful of the things that could go wrong. Especially since The Incident. There were things in the world that could do her harm, and for the first time in her life, Sohalia found herself keenly aware of that fact.
"Well," she sighed, turning to her companions. "This is as good a place to start as any, I suppose. Just - stay close. Which way should we go first?" She gestured vaguely around: to the right was boggy ground, unstable and uninviting; to the left looked drier, but the yellow fog was more dense. Sohalia pulled her journal from her bag and began a rough sketch of the terrain she could see, setting the scene for her map.
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This is an open PQ to scout the Feverlands in order to map the area. Come on in and join Soh! :D
1. Sohalia
2. Talyson
3. Jude
Please post which way your character thinks we should go. Majority rules! ;D
Well, he'd warned her. But just because he didn't want to go back, it didn't mean he'd let his friend go alone. The swamp rats he'd fought off with Morgen the last time they'd been in the Feverlands were no joke and even though he'd been teaching Soh knife-fighting, the nasty rodent fuckers weren't the sort of critters he wanted any of his friends to be fighting at close-range.
Besides, Boreal had a positive affinity for mud, given her white scales, and she would have felt left out if they'd gone without her.
Tal justified it to himself with the excuse that a map of the place would be a big help when he needed to make deliveries there, but those were thankfully few and far between. Either way he'd come along, his scowl deepening as the smell intensified until his face was permanently wrinkled up while he slogged along behind Soh and the others.
"I don't suppose 'back' is an option?" he asked glumly, and sighed - which turned into a quiet retching noise as he gagged on the yellow fog. "Uh... I vote right, I guess, if we haveta keep goin'."
Tal is along with Boreal and everything on his profile! He suggests going right.
Jude had been unaware that Sohalia and Talyson knew each other, but he'd been delighted to discover that the older man would be accompanying them on their map-making journey. Because, well, of course Jude is here. This is his best friend's business!
It is a little intimidating to be seeing Tal before their agreed upon reunion in the fall, but luckily Jude is a far more sturdy and enjoyable presence when balanced out by Sohalia, so his anxiety is merely a faint hum in the back of his head.
The smell is truly terrible, so while the ground to the right looks more unstable, Jude immediately agrees with Tal's judgment. "I don't want to find out if that fog can make you sick, let's go right." Prolonged exposure is not something he is interested in investigating; at least pants and shoes could be washed or replaced.
- - -
Jude agrees with going right! He has a walking stick and a small backpack with a length of rope, rations, and a working knife.
I wish you a kinder sea even if you do not sail with me
If the collective mood hadn't been so sour, Soh might have laughed at Tal's suggestion of 'back.' As it were, she shot him a brief smile. Since both of her friends voted right (and, in fact, that was the way she'd prefer to go), she nodded and steered them in that direction. "So, um, you both know why we're here," she said as she walked carefully over the boggy ground. "I'm looking for any notable landscape features and any interesting flora and fauna."
The bog surrounding them was damp and dismal, and the smell of the Feverlands did not diminish the further in they went. After a short period of walking in silence, a large pile of bones appeared in the distance. Soh pointed it out to her companions. "Should we check it out?" she asked, trying to keep from sounding as nervous as she felt. "It could be the skeleton of something interesting."
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Vote to check out the bones or not (and feel free to go interact with them, if you so choose...)
The Feverlands have quite a reputation for its noxious fumes, rampant death, infernal decay, and that wonderful yellow fog that really gives the skin a fresh glow as you wander into its depths.
And ah…now you’re stuck.
Your feet have somehow become wedged in one of its many quicksand-like areas! Maybe you can find a way out – there might be a branch nearby. Or you can snag a friend.
Before the gore crows, blind swamp rats, and all those other lovely things do!
Seeing Jude again might have been more cautiously pleasant if the setting had been a little less of an actual swamp. Still, even if Tal felt like the young man was too nice to be hanging around him, he was glad that the kid and Soh had apparently hit it off so well. They were pretty much two rays of sunshine to his raincloud - though he'd be a lot less rainy if they'd picked a less stinky place to map out.
The big pile of bones in the distance drew another sigh from the courier as he gave a morose shrug. "It's prob'ly crawling with penolaeths, but sure," he agreed, leading the way towards it.
Or at least, starting to. He put his foot down - and it promptly sank in past his knee. Flailing his arms for balance he managed to avoid going face-first into the quicksand, but his other foot became stuck to mid-calf. After a moment of windmilling he managed to stabilize and heaved a long-suffering sigh. "Don't worry 'bout me. I'll catch up," he intoned, resigned to his fate.
Up in the trees, Boreal was chortling so hard she almost fell off her branch.
Tal agrees to checking out the bones but then gets stuck in quicksand ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
In a way, Jude is grateful when Tal gets immediately stuck in quicksand, because the idea of investigating the bones makes him feel a little ill. Jude scurries towards the courier despite his resigned sigh, extricating his rope swiftly to toss it towards the man to use to help himself out while keeping careful watch of his own feet lest he join the ranks.
To Sohalia, he frowns slightly over his shoulder. "The bones are interesting, but not really necessary for the map aside from marking them. Maybe avoid them just in case there's stuff nesting in there?" Dry, plentiful shelter in an otherwise noxious swamp? Yeah, Jude would bet there's plenty of creatures making their homes in there, and he'd rather prefer if they stayed in them.
- - -
Jude throws his rope to Tal to help him maneuver out of the quicksand, and suggests not checking out the bones.
I wish you a kinder sea even if you do not sail with me
The penolaeths were precisely what Soh was hoping to document - from a reasonable distance, of course - but when they started to move towards the bones, there was a commotion behind Soh, and she turned to find Tal beginning to sink in quicksand. "Oh, no!" she cried, hurrying back to what appeared to be the edge of the sinking sand. "Tal, I'm so sorry!" As though things were entirely her fault - which, of course, they were. "Don't worry - we'll get you out." Somehow.
Luckily, Jude seemed to have a plan, and Soh shot him a grateful look as he pulled out a rope and tossed it towards Tal. "Around the bones, it is," she agreed. It seemed that they were already in enough trouble as it was without adding potentially murderous little crab-bug-creatures to the list.
Unluckily, the plan didn't seem to work, as the rope quickly became mired in the quicksand - and Jude began to sink as well. What an unlucky roll of the dice. Pale and weak-kneed, Soh did her best to not panic and began to reel in the rope. "Okay, don't panic," she said, as much to herself as to her two sinking friends. "Let's just - oh! I know! Could Boreal help get the rope to you so that it doesn't drop into the sand?"
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Uh oh! Jude's rescue attempt didn't go as planned. The rope missed Tal and began to sink, and Jude ended up getting stuck as well. What do we do now? No post order! <3
Soh tries to reel in the rope and asks Tal if Boreal can help.
Although he'd told them to go ahead without him, the little black cockles of Tal's heart were warmed when they ignored him and tried to help anyways. Jude's rope was a good idea but needed some practice - something the courier took note of as a skyboat captain sizing up what lessons his future (maybe-)apprentice would be getting. Now, however, was definitely not the time.
"S'okay. Deep breaths, Soh," he called back to his friend, making an effort to lighten his scowl. He wasn't actually moving much yet; there was something to be said for being resigned to his fate, and it was that he'd stayed calm and wasn't flailing about and speeding his sinking up.
He nodded in approval at Jude's caution. "There's a trick t'the li'l skull-buggers. I had t'deal with 'em for Ludo, once. But we didn't come prepared for 'em." And that was on him. He'd been so busy grumping about their destination that he hadn't packed as thoroughly as he should have. The realization made his scowl deepen until Soh's words cut through his self-recrimination and he blinked up at her.
He didn't seem particularly worried that he was slowly sinking, and the reason why was one that the intrepid cartographer had just hit on. "That's the plan," he agreed wryly. He tilted his head up at the dragon and sent her the image of what was needed. Boreal, still smokily chuckling, dove off her branch to snag the end of the rope up in a hindtalon, then helpfully flew over to drop it beside Jude first.
Tal calms Sohalia before Jude can which causes a pinched feeling in his chest he doesn't want to examine, but the praise that follows on its heels makes the young man smile slightly, relieved to have backup on his opinion. When his own feet begin to sink he goes still as well, though it's more of a possum response than being resigned to his fate or other, more experienced reasons behind Tal's motionless choice.
Boreal swans down gracefully, and Jude fumbles the catch a little but manages to hold on without dropping the rope that she deposits from above. Wrapping it around his forearm for extra support, he looks to Boreal again, wondering if she intended to help ferry the other end over to Tal in the same way. "What will we use for leverage?" he murmurs aloud, though it's mostly to himself as he eyes their surroundings. His initial plan had been to use his own body weight to help pull Tal to solid land, but now that they're both entrapped he's at a bit of a loss.
I wish you a kinder sea even if you do not sail with me
The good news was that the boys seemed to be sinking slowly, if at all. The better news was that the plan to have Boreal fly the rope to the boys worked.
The bad news was that Soh still had no idea how to get them out.
She could try pulling them out, but she was just one girl, and not a particularly strong one, at that. Nor did she think that Boreal would be much help in this particular instance; the dragon was many things, but capable of pulling two people out of the quicksand did not appear to be one of them. Regardless of who did the pulling, and even if Soh and Boreal combined their strength, she was unsure that they would succeed, and Soh was hesitant to waste even more time as her friends continued to slowly sink.
Chewing her lip in thought, she grasped the free end of the rope and looked around. There was a small, scraggly tree nearby, and Soh spoke her plan aloud. "What if... I tie the end to the tree, and you guys can pull yourselves out?"
------
They've figured out how to get the rope to the boys! Now they just have to figure out how to get them out. No post order! <3
Soh suggests trying the rope to a nearby tree for leverage.
He was in the soupy sand to mid-thigh and his knee on his other leg now, but since the rats hadn't shown up yet Tal wasn't in any hurry to extricate himself. He still had his arms free, his dragon, and access to his Bag of Holding, so there really wasn't any reason to panic.
He noted that Jude wasn't prone to panicking either with a little pleased surprise and he actually grinned a little as Boreal delivered the rope safely into the kid's hands.
He had his own ideas about how to get out of the goop, but Soh was the leader of their little expedition and he waited to see what she had to say first. Her plan was a solid one and he nodded agreement. "That's what we'd do if it was just us," he confirmed. "No point waitin', I guess."
So saying, he reached into his Bag and took out his own rope. He tied one end around his waist and tossed the other up to his waiting dragon, who flew over to a sturdier tree a short distance away. She trotted around it twice to anchor it and then set all four feet into the muck, teeth clamped on the end of the rope as Tal began the laborious process of muscling his legs free of their mucky prison so he could begin the dragging slog to dry ground.
Tal gets his own rope out and attempts to free himself with Boreal's help while Soh helps Jude!
He isn't expecting Tal to have a plan to get himself free without their aid, but it's a relief all the same as it hopefully means they will both extricate themselves without further issue. Hopefully Boreal is strong enough to haul Tal out of the sand (though Tal was a bit of a string bean like Jude).
Helpfully wrapping the rope around his waist and taking a moment to knot it firmly - it's not like they were sinking rapidly - Jude tries to give Sohalia a reassuring smile. "Okay, ready on my end." Once she gets the other end tied around a tree as she had suggested, Jude begins to pull himself along the rope to shimmy his way out of the sand to hopefully continue their expedition with fewer pitstops in literal pits.
- - -
Jude knots the rope around his waist and waits for Soh to tie it to a tree before beginning to haul himself out.
I wish you a kinder sea even if you do not sail with me
Well, the quicksand had entirely derailed her plan for the day, and although Soh was much more concerned about her friends than her mapping expedition, it still stung to know that their trip might be for nothing. With a worried frown, she watched as Boreal dropped a line to Tal and as Jude tied his rope around his waist. She tied her end to a tree and waited anxiously; but fortunately, both Tal and Jude managed to extricate themselves without further issue.
With a sigh of relief, she untied their rope from the tree and made her way back over to her friends, wrapping the rope neatly as she went. When she arrived beside the boys, she tried a small smile. "Sorry, guys," she said, wrinkling her nose at the lingering stench of the bog and the situation in general. "I never should have brought us out here."
But moping wasn't going to do them any good, so, with a sigh, Soh turned her attention back to their goal. "Are you both okay?" she asked, first worried about her friends' health and wellbeing. If they were, then they may as well try to get something useful out of their trip. "So, we're avoiding the bones. Let's maybe try that way?" she suggested, pointing to some murky shapes that looked like rocks through the fog. "Or we can go back to the ship and try to map it from above?" she mused aloud. Maybe that would be the safer option.
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Last round! Tal and Jude are safe from the quicksand! Do we continue to explore or go back to the ship? Everybody cast a vote! No post order. <3
