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!
Despite her kind nature in personality, there is a deeper primordial way about Eira when she is hunting. As she, and Belial, descend upon the ningos and they didn’t even move, a white hot ire filled up the griffin’s breast and she screeched her displeasure. With great white wings splayed, Eira turned from trying to chase the ningos out to devouring them. She swept in with venom dripping from her beak. She snatched at ningos with her front talons and her beak alike as her back legs steadied her on the precipice of the wall. Her wings continued to beat, and she screamed again.
Noah, hearing the distant calls of his beloved companion as well as being bombarded by her rage, dropped a rock. IT barely missed his toe, and for that he was grateful. Picking it up again quickly, he tossed it in the pile Deimos was pulling from. Looking up, he stepped towards the others just as the villager helping Alys stumbled and tumbled all of the mixed cement. Noah winced, nearly feeling the embarrassment the clumsy fellow must be feeling. ”I’ll give you a hand mixing more!” Noah called out, rushing over and then doing as he stated.
—-
Eira is pissed and tries to attack and start killing ningos. Noah goes to help Alys.
And I came to, walking on the train tracks How did I get here? And how do I get back?
Everything was going just fine until it came to actually moving the concrete mixture: it was then that Alys's assistant tripped over - well, she wasn't really sure what. His own feet, maybe? Either way, she winced with sympathy even as a pang of annoyance shot through her. Now they would have to start from scratch. "It's alright," she told her helper kindly. "Are you okay?" The fellow assured her that he was, beet red with embarrassment, and went to fetch more supplies.
For the second time, they worked to combine the powdery cement with water to make a paste, Noah arriving to assist. Alys shot him a grateful smile. The calls of the companions had her glancing over her shoulder even though she couldn't see them, and she shook her head at what she could only imagine were violent shenanigans. "Are they alright?" she asked Noah, brow furrowed. "Those are... some noises."
------
Alys tries to mix more concrete!
I've been up all night, let's stay awake Push it further, you know I'll never break
Alys
Minor powerplay allowed without permission.
Feel free to use force/magic on Alys.
Eira might have had a primordial nature, but the ningos were having none of it. Squawking, hooting, and hollering as the griffin charged at them, they scattered in the way most of these fools did – aimlessly. Luckily, Belial was there, leaping at them as well, and together the collective whole was either decimated or chased away. The peryton was quite smug, and snagged several in his mouth, leaving the other companion to decide her next course of action as he sought to return towards the Sword.
Rolling his eyes inward at the antics, Deimos continued to utilize his earthen magic and the stones to ensure the structure remained solid. Between Noah, Alys, and the other workers, the concrete mix was eventually utilized in between cracks, without tripping, faltering, or fumbling.
Nodding his approval, the Warden sped the drying process along with some well-placed fire magic, and then those proportions were settled. “Good. We can keep the mix for the other walls.” Pausing, and shaking his head, he persisted. “The ningos are gone,” not describing how, but based on the predacious bonded returning, they’d be able to see momentarily. “We can go to the southern part and repair the weapons.”
--
The eastern wall has been patched up, and ningos along the southern wall…dispatched.
Drag your things over to the southern wall! No post order!
And I came to, walking on the train tracks How did I get here? And how do I get back?
There was a great deal of noise coming from the ningo-infested wall - noise that Alys tried very hard not to think about too deeply. Instead, she focused her efforts on mixing up the concrete - more successfully, this time - and on helping to apply it to the wall where needed. With all of them helping and Deimos's magic to speed the drying process along, it seemed to take no time at all before they were ready to move on.
As the companions returned (with their prizes, it seemed), Alys began to drag her concrete towards the southern wall. It was heavy, and she tried to be careful not to trip or stumble or otherwise spill it like the first batch. Once she arrived at the southern wall (hopefully without incident), she looked to Deimos for instruction. She'd never repaired weapons before.
------
Alys drags the concrete mix over to the southern wall!
I've been up all night, let's stay awake Push it further, you know I'll never break
Alys
Minor powerplay allowed without permission.
Feel free to use force/magic on Alys.
Satisfaction and primal pride burst like sunlight over the mountaintops in Noah’s bond with his griffin. Noah couldn’t help but break their working silence with a sudden guffaw of laughter. Vi’dore snorted and shook his head, feeling Noah’s wave of adoration for the silly griffin and matching it. She snatched up several of the ningos between her beak and her talons. Then, she flew towards home to stash them behind the wood pile like she typically did.
Glad to have more luck with the cement mixture and the repairing of the wall so far than the last time Noah helped with construction, he worked diligently. Mixing and moving and patching places he could reach. While he didn’t have the same broad spectrum of brilliant powers that Deimos did to help bring the wall back into good repair, Noah did match the man’s persistence and work ethic. Alys did, too, and it gave Noah a burst of pride for the woman. She was becoming a true Halovian.
After the repairs to the first wall were complete, Noah worked to help move what needed to be moved. He strapped the sled they had used to gather debris in the first round to Vi’dore for him to pull over.
With the companions content, and all the workers in place, it didn’t take long for the group to alter directions and head towards the southern part. Belial flew overhead, leading the way with his mouth full of ningo, and the telltale strewn of feathers nearby indicated that they neared where more repairs would need to take place.
Stopping once they arrived, the Sword inspected the notions quickly. While the wall itself seemed relatively unscathed, a grand turn of events from the last one they’d revitalized, there were other notions to adhere to. Besides the clean-up of the bird nests amidst the rocks, several of the smaller trebuchets, ballistas, and other armaments had fallen into the snow. Some were buried, only handles or wood sticking out, while others had been misshapen in their fall from slippery portions along the stone above.
Nodding to each of them, he put another plan in place. “We need someone to clean up the ningo area, and the rest of us should be able to grab the weapons from under the snow.”
--
You may pick from (and use NPCs to help!):
- Cleaning the ningo nests (one)
- Getting the weapons out of the snow (two)
And I came to, walking on the train tracks How did I get here? And how do I get back?
It took seemingly little time to transfer their materials and supplies to the next portion of wall. The companions, at least, seemed to be having a good time, snaring a ningo here and a ningo there, having decimated or chased off the rest of the flock. Alys couldn't help but feel a llittle sorry for the poor creatures, who had done nothing except choose the wrong nest site, only to end up as a mouthful of food for angry companions.
But that was neither here nor there. With the flock cleared out, it was time to clean the wall, and that seemed like a task that Alys would be better suited to than digging the weapons out of the snow. She collected her helper from before, hoping that he would be better suited to this than he was to mixing concrete, and set to work cleaning the wall of ningo nests and droppings.
------
Alys begins to clean the nests from the wall!
I've been up all night, let's stay awake Push it further, you know I'll never break
Alys
Minor powerplay allowed without permission.
Feel free to use force/magic on Alys.
Moving construction supplies from wall to wall was not unlike pulling a sled full of dead ursur off the tundra. Ice and snow were still a hazard, and although they were able to transport and set up in their next location without much incident, it wasn't without the huffing and pufing of the citizens that chose to help.
unstrapping the sled from Vi'dore, Noah listened to Deimos' thoughts. He looked briefly to Alys before she was immediately off to take care of the ningo mess. In the distance, Noah could feel his bond reignite with Eira and knew she was on her way back to them. "If you pull back the snow, we should be able to gather what is underneath." Noah said to Deimos, encouraging the Sword to use his mastery of water.
Once the plan was underway, Noah and a few citizens worked to unearth (unsnow?) the various weapons trapped beneath.
--
Noah and NPCs get stuff out from under the snow, assuming Deimos uses his water magic, and Vi'dore tries to help dig at the snow.
Even without Noah’s direction, the intention behind the Sword’s movements had been exactly that – a little water, a little earth – purposeful and driven to unfurl the snow away from the weapons, and ensure they could be dug out properly. Which went well; piles of snow, and chunks of ice driven away from the wooden and metallic frames of the armaments –
Until it didn’t.
Noah, his unicorn, and his assistant seemed to have it at first, until either a shovel hit either a large patch of frozen ground or a weapon fought back, but they’d end up with ice in their face for their troubles, and some disgruntlement, most likely. Eventually though, with Deimos assisting, they managed to free the trebuchets and ballistas.
Alys and the other worker took readily to their task, cleaning, scrubbing, and ensuring the mixture nests, bird droppings, and any other assortment was gone, vanguished from the surroundings. It gave even the Warden pause, long enough to grant a boyish grin towards the fellow Abandoned. “Might be the cleanest that wall has ever been,” with a nod of recognition for her efforts.
Thereafter though, there was always more to do. “We need to test these,” which, at least, should be amusing, and he handed each small stones or arrows to place within the armaments. “And see if anything needs to be repaired.” He couldn’t fathom all of them doing well after being submerged in the weather’s fringes, but perhaps they would luck out. “Shoot them towards there,” pointing to the wide open terrain, and not towards anyone else.
--
The weapons have been unearthed and the wall is very clean! Test a weapon of choice (trebuchet, ballista) and see if it can work well or may need to be repaired. No post order!
Despite the magic that covered Halo in a warmer embrace, thanks to Frey, it was still fucking cold. The cold was exacerbated by their work -- digging through snow and cracking ice, failing, slipping and falling. Even with the demigods strength and endurance being higher than that of most of his fellows, there was sweat beading on Noah's forehead through the work, and it caused a chill in his spine. Gritting his teeth and biting the inside of his cheeks, Noah continued to work with the deepest bred Halovian tenacity that there ever was. The civilian at his side did so, too, his determination unshaking by their hardship. Vi'dore snorted and stomped his feet, but he didn't stop digging even when it was hard.
Finally, despite the chill in their bones and the way their hands were numb, the weapons resurfaced. "Deimos, can you give us a little fire first?" Noah asked. If he did, the Sentinel would remove his gloves and warm his hands over the flames before he set to work. If not (if the Sword wanted to wait for later, that was), Noah would set to work anyway. Pulling off his gloves for a moment to shake his hands and breathe into them, Noah would take a few seconds to register his entire body as if assessing if any parts had fallen off due to frost bite, before getting to work.
Before he placed any arrows, or let anyone else place arrows, Noah assessed the weapons. He was familiar with them enough to know what they should look like. furrowing his brow and lowering himself to the base of one such ballista, Noah lifted a hand. "This one is busted!"
--
Noah
1. Asks Deimos for fire. If he gets it, he warms himself up momentarily. If he doesn't he does what he can to get his fingers working and then
2. Inspects a ballista and finds that it is broken
And I came to, walking on the train tracks How did I get here? And how do I get back?
Cleaning the wall was hard work, but Alys did not envy the workers clearing the weapons out of the snow. Their fingers must be freezing, even with the protections over the Citadel. Alys herself was fairly warm, between the Citadel protections and the magical protection from the Arcane Academy, and that in and of itself made cleaning the wall easier than it might have been otherwise.
The young woman smiled at Deimos's praise, proud of herself and her helper for having cleaned the wall so thoroughly that it practically shone. Indeed, this section of the wall put the others to shame, and she almost wished there was time to clean all of it so that it matched. That aside, though, there were other tasks to be completed.
Alys had never experienced weapons such as trebuchets and ballistas, and so it was with a fair amount of trepidation that she approached one such weapon: a trebuchet that had previously been covered in snow. With her helper's assistance, she was able to load the trebuchet and set it to fire - though whether it would or not was a different story entirely. Still, she gave it her best effort and waited to see if it would work or not.
------
Alys tries to fire a trebuchet.
I've been up all night, let's stay awake Push it further, you know I'll never break
Alys
Minor powerplay allowed without permission.
Feel free to use force/magic on Alys.
Granting Noah’s request for a small fire, the Sword created a set of flames to remain and settle amidst the snow for a while; at least until they moved on to other portions. From there, he set about snagging at a smaller trebuchet, and placed the small stone within. Configuring at the handle and setting it off, the machine, despite having being layered in snow, fired quite well – lobbing the rock a fair distance away – much to Deimos’ amusement, if the boyish grin thereafter could be read and seen. He set this one aside, intending to place it up along the wall once they were finished. From there, he surveyed the others’ attempts.
Noah was correct in his presumption of the ballista – stuck and held fast – likely by ice, the weaponry didn’t budge after being loaded, and certainly not when fired. “Check to see if any part is frozen,” the Warden advised, brows furrowing, expecting this outcome regardless.
And even though Alys had asked for assistance, the worker and Abandoned would find similar issues with their chosen armament – the weapon clogged either by snow, or needing something new entirely. Leaving Noah, who had far more experience in weaponry, to his own devices, Deimos took his long strides carefully over to the duo to assist in inspecting the issue. “Try pulling it here,” he advised, pointing at a wooden piece that, if he surmised accurately, would need to be replaced.
--
Deimos’ trebuchet works fine!
Noah’s ballista has something wrong – is it clogged? Frozen?
Alys’s trebuchet isn’t working well either – inspect some parts!
And I came to, walking on the train tracks How did I get here? And how do I get back?
To no one's surprise, Alys's trebuchet wasn't firing, and she had no idea how to fix it. She spent a few moments looking it over, trying to figure out exactly how it worked. Although she had a rough idea, she still wasn't clear on the specifics, and that much was obvious as she tugged something here, pushed something there, and finally stood up to glare at it, hands on her hips. Her helper, too, seemed nonplussed, hovering hear her shoulder with nothing helpful to add.
Then Deimos was there, and she listened with some measure of relief to his suggestion. There was a wooden piece on the trebuchet that did indeed look like it had some wear and tear, and Alys tugged on it, trying to pull it off so that it could be replaced. If successful, she went over to their supplies to find a matching piece, returned, and tried her hand at repairing the trebuchet.
------
Alys tries to repair the trebuchet!
I've been up all night, let's stay awake Push it further, you know I'll never break
Alys
Minor powerplay allowed without permission.
Feel free to use force/magic on Alys.
With keen eyes, Noah was able to detect the malfunction in the device before him. Deimos’ voice carried over, so glacier eyes honed in on the joints and corners of the weapon. Just as the Warden suspected, there was ice clogging the ballista from being able to fire correctly. He was certain that if they tried to fire the wooden and metal machine that it would crumble beneath the weight of the clinging ice.
Taking a knife from his belt. Just then, Eira landed next to him. Taking the knife, Noah started chipping away at the ice. As ice chipped away from the joints, Noah used his other hand to brush away the bits of crushed ice and dust that arose from his actions.
Noah takes Deimos’ advice and checks for ice. He finds some and chips away at it. When he thinks its gone, he tries to fire it.
