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.
Post by maddox rothscus ✨ on Oct 5, 2018 5:19:57 GMT
he hears the wurm crash gracelessly into the walls, knowing that if his feet touched the ground, he would have felt the reverberations rattle his bones; and then oddly enough, the sound does not grow any louder. in fact, it seems to recede. witch and familiar pause alike in their assault momentarily, static crackling around his hands, stunned by the turn of events before frustration and indignation crashes over them.
“hey,” he snarls, wings flared and eyes narrowed, intent on the retreating dunewurm. “didn’t say you could goddamn leave.”
( maddox rothscus has had made several plans in the past, and the following plan is by far one of his worst. )
some time ago, a travelling alchemist had given out free samples of miscellaneous potions, of which he had taken for purification studies -- now, he reaches for a vial of shimmering crimson liquid, uncorks it and downs it in one go. if what he remembers of its side-effects are right, this is certainly one way to bait a dunewurm back out.
he lets the vial fall -- it spins end over end, and as it does, he closes his eyes for a split-second; turns his attention beyond the shifting surfaces of the sand, below it, and there he spins a crackling wall of wind from the miniscule, infinitesimal pockets of air to ( hopefully ) prevent it from fleeing any further.
maddox opens his eyes and sees fire. his familiar rears back, and within an instant, vanishes back into the astral plane.
his concentration wavers.
he looks up and he sees, silhouetted against a cloudless sky, suspended mid-air by luminous wings, two figures: the first, he knows of vaguely, with her silver halo of ice-white hair; and then maddox sees-
-him.
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[attr="class","itemssprite"] THE MODERN ATHENIAN: OVERHAUL
Post by lynnelia arnett on Oct 5, 2018 17:39:20 GMT
i know you're unrehearsed, but i see the light in your hands.
A diluted front, a scream of pain, and retreat— cold eyes narrowed at the sight, a tense pull of brow doing nothing to soften an expression so out of place on a face accustomed only to soft smiles and a gentle gaze. Instinct takes over; she must remind herself that she is not burning, that the heat of the desert is not the same as the heat of a flame trying to hurt her, that she has grown so much ( so little? ) from helplessness and pain. Slaughter of a dunewurm would not kill the trauma, but the trauma will not kill her. [break][break] And then, a voice: one she never wished onto a battlefield but knew was familiar with them. Ice caught sight of fire and her features gave way to flurry: alarm, worry, relief, welcome— a blizzard of shifting currents, before settling into resolve; there were so many things she could say, and just as many she held back. [break][break] You are not a child. Death does not follow you. Believe that danger does not mean losing everything you care for.[break][break] “We’ve discouraged it enough to retreat and no one has been hurt, but we need to draw it back out— kill it somehow,” she explained, quick and distracted, as she watched the giant endure more; how much could it take? [break][break] With Kasimir came Kirjava, and with Kirjava came bird of flame and destruction, and Lynnelia had an idea; bringing forth an air atronach, watching the summons come to life following a strange dance of flame instigated by something Maddox did but Lynnelia had not witnessed, the deadric extension began a volley of air and scalding steam toward the wurm, shifting the dunes unfavorably for retreat. [break][break] Lynnelia, together with Medea’s aid, initiated another large spread, aiming as close to the writhing wurm as possible to further delay or even impede its retreat, with the atronach sweeping up spikes of ice and hurling them with the intent to lodge them between the wurm’s midriff and the newly forming foundations. [break][break] But she knew, in the end, their best shot at killing it outright would be brimming with havoc: a creature of this size requires a blast much stronger than what they were giving. [break]Spells used:
WINGS OF AN ANGEL
DEADRIC SUMMONING: AIR ATRONACH
[break]Techniques used in this post:
LARGE SPREAD
SPIKED IN
377 WORDS FOR CHAOS SQUAD ― getting lynn ready 2 realize we gotta BLOW IT UP.
The dunewurm feels the pain from burning heat and freezing cold all at once, it feels the unfamiliar force preventing its retreat, and the searing agony of trying to produce consistent beams of light, instead of these meager short, bloodied busts. Its resulting scream is piercing... [break][break] And the earth beneath the sands rumbles deeply in response.
The ground around the dunewurm shudders and shifts, and, before the party has a chance to react, their target is swallowed whole by a much, much larger dunewurm. Easily four to five times the diameter of the first, and with cracks and scars across its fully developed armored plates as if to prove its experience, it becomes glaringly clear that this is what a fully-grown burrowing dunewurm looks like. [break][break] As large gobs of blood and chipped teeth from the giant's victim slobbishly tumble from its mouth, the head of the wurm swivels curiously over towards the direction of Mirrorlight.
Post by Charani Petrov on Oct 15, 2018 5:49:54 GMT
@murder team
LOREM IPSUM
LOREM IPSUM
LOREM IPSUM
"How do I release and get untied?"
"I don't know how to make you feel alive."
This was all so frustrating. He thought that once his mana had returned to its previous state everything would be fine. It wasn't. He could feel his spells lacking the power he'd had even during the tournament. Something was wrong. Was it him? Was it the vision still shaking his psyche? Was it his own doubts weakening his magic? He didn't know. He should talk to Ezra later... she'd probably know.
The ground shook just after the red haired man appeared... flames licking the duneworm's hide with a hunger he couldn't relate too. Or maybe he could? This empty feeling in the pit of his soul kind of felt akin to the flames. But also not. It was a strange feeling. The dune worm didn't last long though as it was swallowed and cut to ribbons by another's teeth. It was much larger and battle worn by the look of it. Probably an elder creature. He was to far away from the redhead to even think about him. To recognize him from his nightmares.
"Well that's not good..." They should attack it for sure. It seemed to have its attention fixated on the city. That wasn't good at all. He and Teddy combined their mana to use a Crystalized Rock Shower at the thing trying to draw its attention away from the city. It was also kind of an experiment. Gotta see how tough its hide is. Would the crystals be sharp enough to penetrate it's hide or would they need something more heavy duty like a metal or explosive? Or would they have to go for the mouth again?
The others would no doubt throw their own attacks at the thing. It wasn't something they could just leave alone given how it seemed to want something with the city. No doubt looking for another meal despite just having eaten prey. It was the way of the beast. Hopefully this thing wouldn't do that stupid beam attack again. It was really annoying. Like super annoying.
Post by maddox rothscus ✨ on Oct 15, 2018 7:03:37 GMT
for a moment, the world freezes with snapshot clarity, and his awareness stretches to everything and nothing all at once. then the dunewurm screams, sharp and piercing and slicing through whatever train of thought he had with a knife’s edge; maddox takes his feelings and stores them away into a separate mental compartment labelled ‘do not touch’, and returns his attention to the monster at hand.
there is little warning given. the earth shakes under his feet and he stumbles back a few more steps, just in time for something to burst out of the ground in front of him. even at a respectable distance back given his air-assisted tactical retreat a moment ago, the armor-plated, battle-scarred body of the new dunewurm obscures most of his vision. the smaller dunewurm is devoured in an instant. for all their efforts to fell the smaller creature, the new dunewurm does so effortlessly, in one fell swoop. it is both exhilarating and terrifying.
its gargantuan head swivels towards mirrorlight metropolis in the same instant that maddox decides that ‘terrifying’ is a better descriptor for the current situation ( exhilaration can perhaps be saved for a day when he is but a casual observer from a safer distance, and not a witch on a mission ). might as well try to figure out how to draw its attention, then.
an atheneum interface flickers to life around him, the air shimmering a translucent blue. data coalesces into ever-moving walls of text as he reaches deep into the WI-STOR database and curls his fingers around a spell he hopes runs along the lines of unapologetic destruction.
“oi, you oversized caterpillar-” he takes aim, and lets the spell fly. “heads up!”
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[attr="class","itemstitle"]ITEMS USED:
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[attr="class","itemssprite"] THE MODERN ATHENIAN: OVERHAUL
Charani's shards seem to do little against the wurm's thick armor, mostly glancing off or getting stuck halfway through the cracks. Maddox, too, might have found himself disappointed as his own spell produces no outward, flashy destruction as had been desired -- merely a wave of energy which seemed to seep into the giant. [break][break] However, after Maddox's casting of the Wi-stor spell, Charani's shards begin to shatter the inorganic plates as if they were glass, revealing more sensitive flesh underneath. The wurm recognizes this as a threat, but is unfamiliar with the formal process of spellcasting; rather than attacking the duo on the ground, the wurm lunges for the witches in the air.
[wi-stor #4:magic acts as the spell "REVERSE AUGMENTATION: WEAKENING" for this thread]
Post by lynnelia arnett on Oct 17, 2018 6:25:16 GMT
i know you're unrehearsed, but i see the light in your hands.
The air erupted in chaos— child gave way to monster in trails of blood and death, but the witch’s gaze refused to waver. It watched, instead, her companions take on a hulking mass of what she could only call a devil’s creation; time slowed, and the heat of the sun reminded her only of her heartbeat, and how easily it could wane: how quickly monster could crush maiden. [break][break] “Kasi,” she calls over, before everything breaks, before this creature rends them from the sky. “We have to blow it up.”[break][break] Her words are left there, remnants of a figure refusing to die, as the wurm made a break for her, and for Kasimir, and her mother’s voice began screaming at her— calm down. think. move. survive. She rushes out of the way, and her atronach beneath her is a flurry of air and stone and scalding steam, bringing onslaught against the wurm to distract it from its summoner. [break][break] Lynnelia is thinking, and then she is moving, bringing forth a thick mist, directing it to surround its exposed, weakened flesh. [break][break] “Break for cover!” She is screaming now and flying further away— and all she can think now is whether she can pull it off; if they could pull it off. [break][break] And then, with an explosive summons breaking from her, all she can do is hope her gamble pays off— before it all breaks into an ear shattering silence as her creations near the wurm give way to chaos. [break][break] Spells Used (total throughout thread; 2 in post):
Post by maddox rothscus ✨ on Oct 17, 2018 6:55:23 GMT
the spell doesn't seem to do anything, and in that split second, maddox thinks, well, that was useless. then he sees it: the chipped armor shatters under an onslaught of razor-sharp crystalline shards where it hadn't before, revealing paler, vulnerable flesh beneath. alright, he can work with this. probably.
c'mon moosely, get your ass out here you piece of shit.
his ( poor ) attempt at persuading his familiar to materialise is, however, interrupted by a piercing scream. there is scarcely a moment to react: he whips around with enough force to feel something in his neck twinge, just as he witnesses an atronach whirl towards him like some vicious grim reaper, and-
there's blistering heat from the explosions and enough force to knock him forward even on its fringes, and gods there's sand in his mouth as he rolls over -- coughs -- and tosses out a redirect to propel the explosions further towards the dunewurm. really driving the nail home, here. in some other situation, it'd be overkill. here? he doubts it.
and now, finally, finally, moosely trumpets back into existence, head held high and eyes dark with a familiar rage. maddox straightens up using the moose's antlers, and for the first time in a while, there's a unanimous consensus reached on their course of action: cloudless sky or not, he aims for his target amid the swirling dust and roaring flames, and calls down a lightning storm.
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[attr="class","itemssprite"] THE MODERN ATHENIAN: OVERHAUL
Post by kasimir burovski ✨ on Oct 17, 2018 15:29:55 GMT
blue moon
you saw me standing alone
by the time the situation has devolved into a mess of explosions and fire and lighting and chaos, heralded by the arrival of a new, even bigger duneworm that announces its arrival by swallowing the smaller one whole, kasimir has resigned himself to the mass destruction of this section of the desert. at least there is very little to destroy, he tells himself optimistically. save themselves, of course.
kirjava stands her ground below, fire reflecting in her eyes as she hurtles phoenix after phoenix at the duneworm, brilliantly blue with the sacred magic that makes them effective against monsters so. there is sand in the air and rocks raining from above, mist gathering around and a too-familiar figure facing off the monster below ( but now is not the time to stop, to think, to talk or apologise or to do any of the twenty-thousand desires that come to mind- )
kasimir leaves the flames to his familiar and brings his fingers to his lips. a horn forms out of golden light, burning and beautiful and righteous; he takes a breath and a glorious sound rings out over the battlefield, once, twice, three times, vibrating deep in his bones and echoing in his heart. strength, courage, and unity, purpose and conviction; he lets the sound alight in their blood and weaves all of them together in one; he lets the sound sink into the worm's head and stir fear there, break the offensiveness and anger.
and then he claps his hands and summons lighting to strike down upon the worm alongside the storm brewing, eyes flashing and teeth very determinedly not bared; he will not let this worm harm those he cares for without a fight, he will not.
@chaos squad
scrolls used: #1: wings of an angel #2: horn of judgement #3: caster's scroll, scroll 1
Post by Charani Petrov on Oct 21, 2018 1:15:09 GMT
@murder team
LOREM IPSUM
LOREM IPSUM
LOREM IPSUM
"How do I release and get untied?"
"I don't know how to make you feel alive."
At first the crystals are not nearly sharp enough. They do not pierce the creatures hide at all. It is quite annoying. Maybe if he had more power. More strength then nobody would die. Nobody would have died. Darkness wouldn't swallow the world. Wouldn't swallow everything. That was the nature of war. And war was coming. He knew it.
Then it started to crack. The armor. The shards were either getting more powerful or more likely the armor was getting weaker. Teddy would keep up the assault of crystal shards as the creature made not for them but those in the sky. There was fire and lightning all surrounding the creature as it lunged for the two girls. What should he do? Slow it down seemed like a good idea. Give them seconds to move. Seconds were the difference between life and death after all.
"I will be feeling this later..." He shut his eyes for a brief second and his green eyes glowed with mana upon opening them. He could see the path of the worm moving for the girl closest to it. Its jaws ready to devour her as it did to the other worm. It was like a ghost... a whisper... a soon to be reflection. Or a Third Eye if you would. He poured his mana into fortress and raised the stones right in the expected path of the worm to try and slow it down... block the path just for a moment or even have it hurt itself on the sharp crystalline edges. Hopefully this thing would not call any other friends. That would be... less than ideal.
On the positive side it looked like they stood a chance. Whatever spell daddy was using seemed to be helping. Or um... whatever his name was. He should probably ask after they survived. He was not close enough to see him well and to be honest he probably would not remember him from the bar. It helped that he was bad with faces.
A deafening bellow erupts from the wurm as the tiny witches dodge its lunge, and explosions, fire, and phoenixes all crash into its sides. A waterfall of blood is running from its exposed flesh and that trumpeting sound is causing it to not reach quite so far. When struck by a bolt of lightning, however, it spasms, breaking straight through Charani's wall and shattering Kasimir's arm and ribs on one side -- though the damage is severe, the wall does prevent it from being lethal. [break][break] The wurm then dives headfirst into the sands, towards Moosely -- the largest available target -- in an attempt to both out one of these tiny creatures and to give itself more cover beneath the earth. The sands would begin pulling at anyone standing on the ground nearby, sucking them beneath the surface as well.
Post by maddox rothscus ✨ on Oct 22, 2018 5:29:39 GMT
there is a clarion call that rings across the battlefield, resonates in his bones, cleaves doubt from his mind in one fell swoop. whatever temporary rift had driven witch and familiar apart, for that moment, seals up instantaneously. there will be time to ruminate over that afterwards.
the sides of the dunewurm run crimson; the battle is going well, he thinks, before everything goes wrong.
( of course it does. )
a false storm brews and roils above, and maybe lightning wasn’t the wisest option, because an errant bolt strikes true and the dunewurm spasms, flails, and maddox can only watch in slow-motion horror as the creature slams through a hastily constructed wall, and straight into kasimir. “son of a-”
the dunewurm moves faster than a creature of that size should legally be able to: his thoughts jump from alarm and concern and anger to panic and agitation and move move move move moVE
speed enhanced by the wings of wind ( of which sprout swiftly from the shoulders of the moose as well ), he abandons his focus on the lightning storm temporarily, opting instead to listen to the rarely heard voice of self-preservation that suddenly makes itself known. maddox tosses up a lightning-edged wind wall instead, the normally transparent technique crackling with pale blue energy that guarantees a hefty shock if crashed into, forming but a meagre barrier between him, his familiar, and the giant dunewurm.
moosely focuses on getting them off the ground in the meantime, feeling his hooves slip on suddenly treacherous sand, casting hover beneath them both to put some distance between them and the ground. hopefully, it’ll help. maybe.
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[attr="class","itemstitle"]ITEMS USED:
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[attr="class","itemssprite"] THE MODERN ATHENIAN: OVERHAUL
Post by Charani Petrov on Oct 25, 2018 2:00:22 GMT
@murder team
LOREM IPSUM
LOREM IPSUM
LOREM IPSUM
"How do I release and get untied?"
"I don't know how to make you feel alive."
Lightning descends from the sky like a gods wrath upon a perceived injustice that has befallen its sanctuary. It is quite mesmerizing actually to see such raw natural power come down upon an enemy. There is a fountain of blood that oozes out of the creature after this assault. It is quite a sight... and unfortunately something that is not nearly as gruesome as some of the things he has seen. That all of them have probably seen. These were powerful witches... experienced. Broken.
It all happened very fast. He was to far away from the other two men to really be of any use. He didn't have any spell in his repitore to cushion the red haired witches fall really. I mean landing on the sand was probably better than any of his rocks or crystals which would probably do more damage. You know? The thing went for the attractive male witch with the moose familiar. It is always the hot ones who cause trouble. He should really stop thinking like this... I mean he couldn't even really see maddox rothscus ✨ that clearly.
"Teddy..." he hummed as he and the canine tried to stay as far out of reach as he could from the creature. Thank god he has so many long ranged attacks or he would be screwed. He had the canine familiar raise regular earth walls around Kasimir in an attempt to block the injured witch from more harm. The wind witch seemed to be fine on his own trying to protect his chiseled features from harm. Oops there was that feeling again. Go away please. Earth Shower was let loose at the creature again aiming for the body. Hopefully Maddox's spell was still working. Killing it quickly would be in everyone's best interest and this spell seemed to be doing quite a bit of damage after all.
The witches in the sky were probably in the same boat as the seer. They were far enough away they were not in that much danger unless the thing tried that stupid beam attack. Given the state it was in then it probably wasn't going to happen. You never know but still. Stay away from it and fire long ranged attacks as best he could. That was his current goal.