this is Salem, a land filled with magic and maladies. It is a place where witches and their elemental familiars gather, a home to legend and
lore that predates time itself. Yet of all the wicked and wonderful stories the past can tell us of, the most magical are the ones yet to happen.
This is Salem - this is the start of your very own journey. Welcome to starfall
Starfall is an animaga witch roleplay set in mostly modern times. Members play as witches in a world plagued by monsters, where the only safe spots are walled cities. Starfall strives to be a character-driven roleplay with expansive lore and a highly interactive plotline. We want to allow members to
create and look back on a magical journey, and mold the site and its plot as their characters grow.
Mirrorlight Metropolis is offering a bounty to any capable individuals who can kill one (1) adult Burrowing Dunewurm in the Desert of Lazarus within view of the city's walls. These gigantic beasts have been growing ever-bolder, and must be discouraged from venturing any nearer to the city.
Danger Level: High (minimum novice rank required) event overview
The sun is bright and the winds are still. The desert dunes are calm... for now.
Post by Charani Petrov on Sept 15, 2018 7:40:09 GMT
@team murder
LOREM IPSUM
LOREM IPSUM
LOREM IPSUM
Items Used: * * * * * *
"My heart may be broken but at least I've got one"
"And I'd rather a broken heart than none."
The city walls were a safe haven at this point. At least they should be. However according to what he was told these giant worm creatures were growing much more bold. They were attacking near the city walls... closer than they had ever been. This meant the town was soon to be in huge danger. The people could easily be wiped out without help.
It was so warm out... the blaring sun beating down upon the sands of the desert. How people lived in this kind of climate was something he could never understand. He liked it cold though so maybe it was just a him thing. There was bound to be others around here to take one of these things down. He just had to... and there was someone. Or someones. He and his canine familiar started walking towards the group.
"Well. This is interesting." He hummed as he got close. He couldn't make out anyones faces at this point. It didn't help that he was literally two feet tall compared to some of the people here. Well one of the people here for sure. There was an aura of familiarity amongst the group... some even he felt. He'd know better once he got a good look at everyone when they faced him. He had approached from the rear after all so everyone's backs were pretty much to him.
The small canine was on high alert. You could hear burrowing in the distance. Or maybe that was just his imagination? He didn't know. All he knew was that there was a group of people here on the outskirts of the desert to go monster hunting. That and he wanted in. On the plus side desert territory meant plenty of earth for him to use in his magic.
There is a sense of an eerie calm the moment she treds foot into the burning sands of Lazarus, how the sands that stretch past the horizon of the desert remain still– untouched and dormant from the threat that has been sighted nearing the towering walls of the metropolis not too long ago. It was odd and the stillness of the atmosphere the desert seemed to breathe was an uncomfortable feeling to her especially with how frenzied beasts around Sundial seemed to have grown, unphased by the prospect of letting their presence be known. The stillness of Lazarus was something she refused to take lightly especially with how much damage these large creatures could cause; how many lives these creatures were capable of taking should they want to.
A sense of tension seems to waver from her as she moves a bit further into the desert, the weight of her body slightly sinking into the rolling sands; her attention growing more diverted as her gaze settles onto a hazy figure. Her movements seemed to slow as she moves to approach the unfamiliar face, brows furrowing slightly as the hot unrestricted sun obscures her vision in the slightest, “Have there been any signs?” Her voice raises in the slightest, her question curt and blunt as she approaches the unfamiliar witch– her interests lied in getting the threat neutralized as soon as possible, formalities were an afterthought.
She doesn’t bother to press with further questions, instead, she moves to a halt the moment she’s within proximity of the other witch; her head poised in the slightest to peer at the endless desert behind him, veiled eyes waiting for the sands to stir to life with movement. For now, Lucia would remain tucked away within the other realm though the maned wolf was more than willing to make an appearance should the situation sour.
The desert remains fairly quiet, but anyone who was keeping an eye on the horizon would notice a distant dune sink completely into the sands below... as if something very large had just shifted underneath.
Post by maddox rothscus ✨ on Sept 20, 2018 5:50:53 GMT
he is here, burning blinding sun high above and shifting sands beneath his feet, the heat felt through worn sneaker soles. he is here, despite an empty jacket arm ( tied in a knot, flapping in the wind with a noise he has come to detest ), in spite of it, looking smaller than usual in the absence of his familiar. but he is here nonetheless; he is here to prove a point.
he is quiet too, subdued, a bandana of dark dyed violet draped lightly over his nose and mouth, hidden behind the crest of a dune. knees to chest, arms crossed over them. every inch still in silent patience save for the eyes -- storm-grey restless and scanning the horizon constantly. he keeps his thoughts sharply in check, focusing solely on the task at hand: the eradication of an adult duneworm. it’s a difficult task, he knows, but a challenge is exactly what he needs. some wounds take time, he knows, but he cannot simply sit and stare at those scars all day.
if he stays too still, if he lets his thoughts stray too far, the memories will tear at the corners of his eyes; they will peel back the edges with a jagged thumbnail and he will break once more--
the sands shift in the distance. he sees two witches. the memory fades.
a dune ducks beneath the horizon. strange. his mind clears, with a sudden, jarring thought: oh, worm?
maddox rothscus stands up, dusts some sand off his jeans, and sprints down the sand dune at full speed, towards both the group and the row of disappearing dunes. surely, they’ve seen it by now. he doesn’t call moosely ( and in fact, the familiar stays silent ); instead opting for a quick athenian attack: overhaul is launched brutally, gracelessly, at the duneworm as soon as he can get a good estimate of its location.
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[attr="class","itemstitle"]ITEMS USED:
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[attr="class","itemssprite"] THE MODERN ATHENIAN: OVERHAUL
A sudden, piercing shriek acts as testament to Maddox's good aim. The dunewurm, its body easily as thick as a redwood tree, breaches the surface of the sands, rearing its head in search of the source of its pain. A brief glint of light can be seen amidst its massive teeth mere moments before a searing beam shoots out from its mouth and sweeps across the nearby dunes in an aimless arc, hot enough to leave a trail of glass in its wake.
Post by Charani Petrov on Sept 26, 2018 19:07:29 GMT
@team murder
LOREM IPSUM
LOREM IPSUM
LOREM IPSUM
Items Used: * * * * * *
"My heart may be broken but at least I've got one"
"And I'd rather a broken heart than none."
A tall strapping man makes his appearance. He runs towards the disturbances in the sand. He isn't sure what kind of spell or magic the man has used but it seems to find its target rather quickly. He and the girl haven't even had the chance to move before he had leapt into action. It was kinda cool.
Then came the screeching. It was like nails on a chalkboard. Nothing new. Unfortunately this was a sound he had heard many times before. Well something similar at least. It echoed in his dreams sometimes. It was the kind of sound that created dread in the air. It was the kind of sound that attracted attention as well.
"Well shit." he muttered under his breath as the thing breached the surface of the sand and flailed like a large tree trunk. It was only seconds before something glowed and an intense heat could be felt even in this already hot desert from a reasonable distance. Well he should probably help out. He stomped his foot hard into the ground, taking a low stance before using Fortress and Skill: Crystalize to raise a large wall of crystal. He figured it was much easier to dig up zirconia and quartz from the ground below than rocks thanks to the sand. Sure it wasn't near as sturdy as rock but it had a much higher melting point than rocks so he was hoping it would absorb a lot of the heat from the attack. He could probably use the glass forming as well in an attack.
The wall was placed in front of Maddox of course as he was in the most immediate danger given his distance from the creature. The girl and himself were farther back and had more time to dodge or weave in his mind at least. He and Teddy would use the glass created from the heated sand to use Earth Shower using his mana to rain the created glass shards back down onto the creature aiming for the area near the beam.
He and Teddy would of course move out of the way of the beam if it was coming towards him. There was little doubt that the girl by him would do the same. It just made much more sense than trying to create three less powerful walls than to focus his mana on the one. Besides they were farther back than Maddox so it should be fine. Should be. Right?
Post by maddox rothscus ✨ on Sept 28, 2018 3:39:08 GMT
the sands explode.
that’s the only way he can think to describe it. for a brief, fleeting moment, replaces any sense of satisfaction from feeling the attack hit with striking fear. maddox rothscus has never one to be frozen in fear -- it goes against every leviathan-trained battle principle he has drilled over and over into his bones -- but recent events have shaken him somewhat. momentarily, it wraps icy talons around his spine, digs deep into his skin and the blast of heat felt even from afar reminds him of:
a sword of white-hot flames / a burning, searing pain / the world unbalanced, knocked off-kilter a phantom limb shrieks a reminder
a wall slams out of the sand at his feet, crystalline surface sending beams of light scattering across his vision and shattering the memory. he chances a glance over his shoulder at the other two to offer a nod of gratitude, before turning his attention back to the duneworm.
he has never quite tested his purification abilities against something of this size. there’s a first time for everything, he supposes. he just hopes that this first time won’t also be his last. squinting against the sun, he ducks out from behind the wall to get a better aim, and with as much precision as he can muster, aims a reflect spell along the path of the duneworm’s beam.
[attr="class","itemsblock"]
[attr="class","itemstitle"]ITEMS USED:
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[attr="class","itemssprite"] THE MODERN ATHENIAN: OVERHAUL
The crystal, glass, and reflected light beam wreak havoc the dunewurm's mouth, causing gobs of blood to splatter about as it writhes and shrieks. A few short bursts of light shoot from its mouth, but they only seem to cause it more pain. Instead, the beast's upper body slams downwards, shaking the earth just before it sweeps its full, crushing weight across the sands towards Maddox, the closest of the witches.
Post by lynnelia arnett on Oct 2, 2018 6:54:13 GMT
i know you're unrehearsed, but i see the light in your hands.
Against the gold of the sun, the shifts of dunes beneath cool ice, a figure of winter hair and hallowed cloak sped along the expanses of the desert; skidding behind her was a blizzard— no, a wolf; no, a fox; no, a celestial offering— cutting through the heat with ill-kept ferver in the shards of cold knit between the fur. [break][break] Skating had grown easier to master the more Lynnelia cared to learn, though now her limbs ached from excursion: she wasn’t meant to be so late, was not in her nature to be anything but present and fair, but some matters trumped duty at times. Medea says she should be thankful a fuss was not had, though Lynnelia insists the fuss was simply silent. [break][break] As the duo sped along, limbs moving with practiced grace, eating up the terrain in merciless cold, three figures emerged on the horizon: two she recognized, one more distinctly than the other, and a stranger by all respects — not belonging, not in her circles. [break][break] The duneworm they had been warned of had made an appearance, writing in pain, though it disrupted the ground and the skating pair stumbled for a fraction of a moment before continuing, making up for the terrain by spreading the element to their liking. [break][break] The creature stumbled, then fell, then threw itself toward who she remembered vaguely as Maddox— she’d met him before, she thought, before moving into action; the other two witches had nothing at their disposal to avoid the hazardous conditions, but she suspected Rothscus and herself stood a better shot. [break][break] Help me construct a tunnel and then a pillar— we have to get them out of harm’s way, or this will go very bad, very fast. [break][break] The witch’s familiar sped into action, weaving across the desert and leaving pillars in her wake; she showed a path above, gesturing the landlocked witches to follow to sturdier ground— sturdier for the moment, at least. [break][break] Lynnelia broke away, casting WINGS OF AN ANGEL, finding herself lifting off of the Earth and turning skyward, out of the duneworm’s immediate reach, calculating, now, the next move. [break][break] Scrolls used:
Their attacks were having more effect than he had anticipated. He could hear the creature writhe in pain and its beams of light shot out wildly with blood sputtering and spattering across the sand. It was kind of a sad sight to be totally honest. A creature who knew that it was to die this day and yet it still fought on. It was sad.
He could feel the sands shake even from where he was when the creature slammed down. That thing had to way a ton or two with how much force it used to create that kind of mini shockwave. At least it was sandy terrain so it was very good at absorbing shock damage meaning probably no splitting apart of the earth below them. That's a relief.
Purification was of no help here nor was divination. He had to rely mostly on his earth magic. He looked at his little pupper and gave a simple nod. The dog nodded back to him as they worked together to form another wall with Fortress to attempt to block the dune worm's path to maddox rothscus ✨ for a few seconds. With how much that thing weighed it wouldn't last long at all but hopefully it at least slowed that thing for a second so the rugged male could escape.
"At least I think its done with the pew pew..." he said in a calm tone, moving back even farther than he currently was so as to stay out of reach of the writhing creature. He wasn't a close combat person anyway. There was a girl with ice magic hopping around the field now. She didn't look familiar at all. There was just ice coming everywhere and then she had wings. It was wild. He was curious how long the ice would last in this heat. Then again magic ice is different from normal ice.
Post by maddox rothscus ✨ on Oct 4, 2018 11:58:04 GMT
it works, to his surprise. blood sprays dark against a cloudless sky, and his brows are furrowed in concentration to keep the spell in place, turning the wurm’s attacks on its own trajectory. helpful as that may be for the beam-attacks, purification does awfully little against physical attacks -- and luck seems to run out. time slows as the sky shrinks, his scope of vision increasingly blocked by the mass of an entire monster rushing towards him.
his familiar, still, is silent.
come on, come on, now would be ideal if you decide to come out-
( for a moment suspended in time, it feels like he is fifteen again, sprawled on the ground with blood in his mouth and the mirrored pain of a dagger in his chest lancing through his body, arguing stubbornly with a familiar far stronger than he is. )
oh god, he’s going to let me die.
then: a roar, furious and loud and defiant, and the familiar crashes into the material plane on three-and-a-half legs and the winds howling at his back. maddox’s relief is palpable.
in an instant, wings of wind spring forth and the witch darts to the side with that extra burst of speed, eyes intent on the dunewurm, determined not to get crushed. the air below him solidifies into a thin layer, and he half-sprints half-skids his way across the hastily created windsurfer to get out of range.
for good measure, he kicks up a fierce gale and sends it shrieking towards the monster. the air is suddenly thick with the smell of ozone, the normally near-invisible wind technique saturated with the crackling energy of a static field. he’s got to keep its attention on him somehow -- and with some luck, that gives the others more room to wreak further havoc on their quarry.
[attr="class","itemsblock"]
[attr="class","itemstitle"]ITEMS USED:
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[attr="class","itemssprite"] THE MODERN ATHENIAN: OVERHAUL
The beast, quite prepared to hit the frail body of a witch, was unpleasantly surprised to find that there was instead a solid stone wall in its path. Though the wall crumbles easily under the weight, the creature still writhes in pain and distraught confusion. Such a tiny snacks were not worth this level of suffering. Not at all. Subdued, the wurm begins to slide backwards into the sands from where it emerged.
Post by kasimir burovski ✨ on Oct 5, 2018 4:27:42 GMT
blue moon
you saw me standing alone
somehow, despite everything that is occurring, despite everything demanding attention, the first thing kasimir sees is lynn.
he arrives from the north, trudging through the desert on his way home from a completed mission; he arrives from the north with the wind at his back and the sun in his eyes, endless dunes of sand stretched out before him in crests and falls of pale gold. he arrives from the north, the sky high and blue and soaring, and the ground trembles beneath his feet as if an old god slumbering there has been stirred awake.
'what?' he thinks in alarm, eyeing the dunes before him; 'where?' but he does not have to wait long. the giant, writhing form of a duneworm rears up against the horizon, accompanied by swirling sands and flashes and a piercing shriek he winces at even from his distance. a moment later, a figure sweeps into the sky trailing luminous wings and ivory hair in her wake; kasimir's heart skips a beat as he recognises lynn, recognises one of the few people he calls friend.
without even thinking, he too wraps himself up in feathers and flight, spiralling up to meet his fellow summoner with mana readied at his fingers. "lynn," he says as soon as he is in audible distance, green eyes worried as he scans her for any injuries. thankfully, she appears to be unwounded, unharmed - for now. "what is happening?" he asks, turning his gaze downward.
there are three more people he can sense, down by the monstrous worm. the earthen walls and crystals and electricity heavy in the air make evident their fight, but the sand stirred up blurs the people into indistinct shapes. kirjava manifests with barely a pause, far from being hit but close enough to allow techniques; together, they send a phoenix crafted from the ceruleans and greens of sacred fire screaming down upon the duneworm's head.
