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!
10-12-2023, 01:39 AM (This post was last modified: 10-12-2023, 02:45 PM by Hadama.)
Torchline's week-long LongNight party didn't prepare itself, unfortunately. There was booze to stockpile, food to prepare in advance, lanterns to line the streets and bridges...
And, of course, readying the great bonfires along the coast that served as the heart of the festivities.
The big week was almost upon them and Hadama had sent out notices around the city requesting help. The bonfires were easy enough to set up in advance so that only a spark was needed to light them up, but there was a fair bit of elbow grease that went into the simple undertaking.
The Mer King waited in a convenient tide pool for his helpers to arrive, nodding gratefully to each as they made their way over to him. Once a large enough group had gathered he looked around at them and then spoke.
"Thank you for coming. The harder we work today, the longer we can celebrate during LongNight. First, we need to gather our supplies. Seaweed, driftwood, and stones. Break into teams, please, and gather as much as you can."
Round 1: Arrive and choose one of the first tasks!
- Collect seaweed for tinder
- Collect stones for lining the firepits
- Collect driftwood for fuel
From hosting one party to helping to prepare for an even bigger one. Edmund sure was busy this season. As he arrived, he gave Hadama a nod, "We'll get it done in time." If they didn't the people of Torchline would hold their own, far more destructive, party. it was better for the region as a whole to have the chaos under the illusion of control.
With the tasks distributed, Edmund set out to collect stones. The water wasn't cold per se, but it was cold enough for the Ancient to want to avoid. Using a bag to collect them, he tried to get stones of a variety of sizes to create a solid base for the firepits.
Sah had been in Torchline for a brief hunting commission when he'd seen the notice. The Deepfrost weather in Torchline was so mild it was almost like being in Halo's warmer seasons. It seemed like a waste to head home immediately. As such he detoured and headed to where there was a small collection of people getting to work.
"Hello. I saw the notice. Mind if I lend a hand? I'm Sah." He didn't recognize Hadama or Edmund but the mer reminded him of Soleil's description of the mer King. Perhaps this was him? The young Ancient present set out to collect stones and the Abandoned turned to the driftwood that was lining the shore. Using his telekinesis, he began to collect a large pile and set it beyond the reach of the water.
"Thank you, Sah. I am Hadama." Unaware that this was Soleil's father, the mermanta greeted the newcomer with simple gratitude for his assistance. There wasn't much time to chat as the groups split off, so for the moment the mermanta accepted Edmund's assurance with a nod and the ghost of a sad smile, remembering how positive Ray had always been, too.
Unfortunately, it seemed as though some trickster spirits heard the young Ancient as well, or else their undertaking was direly in need of a Tumsea's blessing. Edmund was able to find plenty of pebbles and smaller stones, but none of the large, flatter rocks that were needed for the main walls of the fire pits. To make things worse, his bag developed a hole halfway through and stones started to slowly drop out as he walked so that it never seemed to get any fuller.
Sah should have had an easy time collecting wood. There was plenty of it scattered around, brought to shore by the sluggish Deepfrost tides and he didn't even have to get his feet wet to retrieve it. Unfortunately, though he had set his growing pile out of reach of the waves when he started, the tide was continuing to come in and a sneaker wave from some distant offshore storm crept silently closer until the water suddenly rushed up the beach in a powerful swell. His pile of driftwood was pulled back out to sea - though at least the wave had also pushed more driftwood closer to shore?
Hadama had inadvertently chosen then absolute worst place for gathering seaweed. As he set out to find the best patch of kelp he soon discovered that though there was a healthy underwater biome of sea grasses, there wasn't a strand of kelp to be found until he'd gone farther down the shore. Just as he drew his knife to harvest the sneaker wave caught him by surprise, uprooting the shallow kelp and dragging it away and out of easy reach, leaving the mermanta empty handed. He narrowly missed being struck by a dead jellyfish that the surging waters dragged past him and dumped on the nearby shore, though a few loose stingers still left thin welts on his arm.
A glance up and down the shore showed that he was far from the only one having troubles, so after a moment's thought he decided to continue his search and leave the others to keep trying on their ends.
Round 2: Oof
The supplies were harder to find and hold on to than expected! Second round same as the first, but feel free to use the sneaker wave's havoc to increase your chance of finding something good!
The tides have shifted the sand just so to reveal an elegant statuette abandoned on the beach. It looks like it once depicted a young woman standing tall, lightning clutched in her hands, but the water has eroded much of the detail by now.
10-12-2023, 11:32 PM (This post was last modified: 10-12-2023, 11:45 PM by Edmund.)
Edmund noticed the hole in his bag after a while and his tail flicked in annoyance. Letting out a small hiss he went and swapped it out for a new one which he double bagged. Hoping that that would prevent any further tears, he returned to his search. The extra layer would also theoretically aid in holding the weight of the larger stones.
Determined to complete his task, the young Ancient narrowed his focus to only the rocks around him. Choosing those best for a firepit was his sole goal and as such he completely missed the statuette. Larger stones for the main body and smaller pebbles to supplement was a mantra that repeated in his mind as he collected all that he could.
Sah was pleased with his pile until the sneaker wave struck him. Giving the water a look of offense, he sighed and restarted his task. With the sneaker wave passing, a vast amount of driftwood appeared and the Abandoned tried to use it to his advantage. As driftwood was being pulled back to sea by the retreating wave, some passed in front of Sah. Using his magic and hands, he worked to quickly collect the sudden bounty and place it higher up on the beach and out of reach of the water.
As he worked, Sah made sure to keep an eye on the water to ensure that there wasn't another change to its flow or direction. If so, he prepared himself to shift his driftwood pile out of the way at a moment's notice. It was because of this that he spotted the statuette as it floated by. Eyes narrowed he wondered if it was from the fallen shrine to the Voice. It resembled what he'd seen during his singular visit.
~
Sah tries to use the sneaker wave to his advantage and collect driftwood!
Double-bagging solved the problem neatly, and Edmund had no more trouble collecting his rocks. Instead it was the opposite! As if to make up for his poor luck at the beginning, he soon stumbled across a section of beach where the tide had washed up plenty of lava rocks from Apopo's eruptions. It made for uncomfortable beach-walking in bare feet, but he had his pick of sizes and shapes of pumice, basalt, and obsidian. As others realized what he'd found they headed over and before long there was plenty of rock to go around!
Sah was similarly blessed with better luck after the sneaker wave's cruel twist. He might have had to start from scratch, but the range of his magic and the increased bounty of floating wood that was dredged up from the shallows and pulled up towards the shore more than made up for the temporary setback. He was able to gather a sizeable pile in record time, and the other Torchers on wood-gathering duty had similar luck. The driftwood cache was already looking to be of a record size this year!
Hadama's luck wasn't quite as good, and in the end it was one of the assisting merfolk who found the kelp bed and called the rest over. Along the shoreline humans were gathering the kelp that the sneaker tide had flung up on the sand while the merfolk harvested fresh stalks and eventually reconvened with their land-dwelling helpers to amass their pile.
Seeing that enough progress had been made to gather the raw materials, Hadama sent a wave of satisfaction through the Attuned bond to all those who could feel it, and nodded at the rest, proud of their efforts so far. "We can begin digging the fire pits now. Above the line of the king tide," he added, tilting his head to the side in wry acknowledgment of the unpredictable mishap. "The driftwood needs to be chopped into usable lengths. And the seaweed needs to be hung up to dry. We can use the fish lines for that."
Round 3:
- Hang the collected seaweed up to dry in the sun
- Chop the driftwood into manageable chunks
- Dig fire pits above the high tide line
Edmund smiled at Hadama's encouragement, happy to help. The next round of tasks was given out and he headed over to chop the driftwood. The young Ancient figured that with all the manual labor he'd been doing recently, he'd be able to manage to chop the vast quantity of wood on hand.
Using an axe, Edmund got to work. He tried to keep the pieces contained so as not to go flying upon breaking. When he'd seen wood logs be cut, they would fall to the sides, but he wasn't sure how driftwood would react to being chopped. He didn't want anyone to get hurt.
It was only after his success collecting wood that the name of the mer fully registered for Sah. So, this was that Hadama. He'd been so caught up in his tasks that he completely lost that train of thought earlier. Their youngest helper went off to chop wood so the Abandoned turned towards the future fire pits.
Sah walked along the line where they would go, testing the sand and earth beneath his feet. Finding spots that seemed suitable for he got work digging with a shovel. As the same time, he used his earth magic to keep sand from falling back in and slowing his progress. With a bit of air to compact it in, Sah hoped to create secure fire pits for the party.
There were many things that could go wrong with chopping wood, but Edmund managed to avoid them all. Though the driftwood was often in the form of gnarled branches that were twisted into strange shapes that defied the simplicity of a straight trunk, his axe bit through them without snagging or ricocheting off unexpected knots. Other large logs that had been dislodged and swept closer to shore by the sneaker wave were easier to cut apart, though each one took much longer. Luckily Edmund had several other Torchers on hand to help out, and the tangled pile of dismembered trees soon turned into messy piles of wood in much smaller sections that were roughly the same size.
Magic really did help out with monotonous tasks like these, and this time there were no ill-timed volcanic eruptions or rogue waves to impede the Wild Thunder's progress. Though other Torchers moved along the beach as well, in groups of two or three, Sah was easily able to hold his own with a touch of his earth and air manipulation to smooth his way. Between them all it didn't take long for a dozen broad, shallow pits to be dug, safely well above the tide line and further oceanic mischief.
Once again it was the King who struggled. The tasks around creating fire pits were not, perhaps, well-suited to Merfolk. They were much better at making things wet than drying them off, though Hadama's magic could be used for either. In the end he had to wait for several humans to set the lines up and hang the gathered kelp across them before he could bring his magic to bear, drawing the water from the dripping harvest and leaving it light and dry beneath the sun.
"We are almost done," he declared after taking a break to swim along the beach and check on the progress of the wood and pits. "One group can line the pits with the gathered stones. The firewood will need a few days to dry and cure out of the water. Stack it by each fire pit and it will be ready by LongNight. And the kelp needs to be separated into batches for kindling and placed by the wood piles."
Round 4: Wrapping it all up!
- Stack the chunks of driftwood above the high tide line to dry, near each firepit
- Separate the dried kelp into batches for multiple fire pits and distribute them near the firewood stashes
- Line the firepits with the stones
It seemed like the precautions that Edmund had taken paid off. The driftwood gave him little trouble and soon the task was complete. Everyone regrouped and the young Ancient made a beeline for the stones after giving Hadama a quick smile. He'd already put immense effort into gathering them. It seemed fitting that he'd be the one to place them in their new home.
Taking the stones, he lined the fire pits systematically. First, the larger stones were placed along the perimeter to create the main body of the firepit. From there he packed in the gaps with smaller stones and trained them closer to the center. In the center he laid one of the largest stones to be the base for the wood.
10-13-2023, 06:57 PM (This post was last modified: 10-13-2023, 06:57 PM by Sah.)
I have never feared the storm
Sah chuckled when the young Ancient abandoned his driftwood to handle the stones. Taking a page in the teen's book, the Abandoned headed towards the cut driftwood. Sorting it out into a dozen so that each fire pit was eagerly covered, he made separate stacks. From there he used his telekinesis to carry each stack as a whole and place it next to its corresponding fire pit. Perhaps magic was a way to cheat out of manual labor, but it was truly efficient at times.
Once he was done Sah stood back and made sure that each stack was secure and not at risk of falling apart.
Given that he had chosen the rocks with such care initially, it was no surprise when Edmund was able to lead the way in lining the fire fire pits with stones in a way that would keep the sand from sliding back in. They were sturdy bowls that would keep the bonfires safely contained and burning strongly throughout the week of darkness, so long as there was enough fuel to feed into them.
Speaking of which, Sah used his magic to carry significantly more wood than the others in his group could manage in one trip. The large, messy pile of cut wood soon dwindled as the logs were taken to their new destinations and neatly stacked. Thanks to his efforts, each of the large fire pits would have enough fuel to last them until the sun rose again. Because of his ability to carry so much at once his group was the first one done, and he was able to relax while the others finished their tasks.
That left the King to oversee the distribution of the kelp. He aquaported into a tidepool that was deep enough to hold him and leaned on its edge while he used his hands to tear and shred the kelp into small enough pieces to make good kindling. As he and his helpers reduced the dry, fibrous material down to fluffy strips, others gathered handfuls and moved them to where the piles of driftwood logs had been stacked, carefully arranging them in little 'log cabins' so the tinder wouldn't get blown away before LongNight.
Eventually the last stones were placed and the last tinder was delivered, and Hadama looked over the ready beach with deep satisfaction. "We have done well," he rumbled. "Thank you, all. Drinks are on me tonight at the Hanged Man." With a mischievous glint in his solemn emerald eyes he bowed from the water and then disappeared beneath the waves to make his way over to the bar and prepare it for the incoming pre-party celebration.
Thank you so much for your help! The beach is ready for LongNight! :D
