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.
"So what we have here is a fairly straightforward case. Farmer’s are complaining to the government that their aquifer might be tainted, and we get sent out to gather samples of the stuff for them. Simple enough right?”
Cassius turned to the girl he was assigned to gather resources with on this mission. He smiled at her warmly as he tried to summarize the situation from the stack of paper in his hand attached to a clip-board, Beck on his shoulder helping to flip pages by making pseudo-arms from shadows to flip the pages.
He supposed they were lucky it was such a beautiful day. The walk out to the farming fields had been a pleasant one, with plenty of natural scenery. He supposed he could have taken his broom out here, but he figured with the company, and with all the things they had to bring, what with the provided plastic bin with the test tubes they needed to fill with samples, it would just be better to walk in the end.
“Your name is Holly, right? I think I’ve seen you around before, but I don’t think I ever got a chance to match a face to the name. You doing all right with the vials? I’d give you a hand, but I’m lacking one myself.”
The final quip would be delivered with a cheeky grin and a simple, but kind laugh, his eyes skimming over the countryside view, taking in the plants and flowers and trees as they crested the hill. “I wonder what exactly makes these farmers think their water is tain…ted…”
His voice trails off as the two reach the peak of their hill to glance over the sight of what was once sprawling fields of wheat, produce and the like to see withered husks of the plants rapidly growing before turning to cracked and fragile husks, before crumbling to ash and sprouting up again.
His eyes swept slowly across, trying to comprehend this insanity.
The journey to the outskirts of town did not take much effort. Holly spent plenty of time wandering around Sundial for inspiration, although this farm in particular should be new. Probably would have ended up here eventually, but then she would have never made a new friend. Maybe.
Cassius was another darkness user in the same coven. The two of them might have already met, or would later. Holly only recently decided to make the effort to meet as many of the other jesters as possible. Normally, it would be easy to say that she simply forgot, but Cass. . .
"Yeah. Don't worry about it." Holly tried to be friendlier than normal, but continued to run into the same problem. She routinely ended up looking at his not-an-arm by accident, and instinctively looked away. This felt like it was going to be a problem for a while, but she could get over it. Eventually, the knot in her stomach would fade away.
Thankfully, a distraction appeared to keep her mind focused on the task at hand and not her partner's lack of one. The field they arrived to survey was now in front of them, and now. . .well, she could see why they needed help. For a moment, she wondered if there was someone better qualified to see all this, but then again, the samples should be enough.
"We just-- they only asked for water, right? They don't need us to bring any of..." Holly gestured vaguely in the direction of the wheat, hoping to avoid rambling on forever. The depressing nature of the ruined nature did not look like a fun area to walk through looking for samples. Might be cool to wander back here and try to paint this scene.
He shook his head as his eyes passed over the scene. It looked to him like something out of an absurdist painting, one that had come to life and begin to animate. He didn't like it, but he found it somehow intriguing. It looked almost like some sort of transfiguration magic that had gone out of control, and he wanted to know more.
"I don't know," came his eventual reply. "We might want to take a few anyhow. I don't think we are qualified to make decisions on whats important and what's not, so let's just get a little bit of it all. Better to get too many, than too few."
He passed the clipboard to Beck, who grabbed it in his bill and manipulated it into Cassius' backpack as the man began to descend down towards the strange fields. It reminded him of some weird book he had read a long time ago, one of a strange color that drained the life around it.
He ran his hand through the wheat as he passed through, parts of it crumbling and blowing away in his palm, all of it swaying unnaturally, somewhere between dried and living. As he passed through, he noticed a stone well sitting in a clearing in the middle and made his way over towards it.
The rocks seemed cracked and dried, with almost too much age to them, and upon peering down within them, he could see a thick but shallow bit of blackened mud. He nodded to his familiar who conjured up a semi-prosthetic shadow arm from within the confines of the empty flowing sleeve of his jacket, and they began the climb down.
As he swung his legs over, he called to his partner. "Make sure you get some of the dirt too. I'll climb down here so you can pass the vials to me, alright?" And as he said his last bit, began descending into the depths of the well.
It wasn’t supposed to look like this. It didn’t always look like this. Supposedly, this ruined area had moments of normalcy. Everything died in a cycle. Someone like a purifier might be able to fix things right away, but the problem kept coming back.
So she had to take a little of everything, because who knows why everything is messed up? Holly sighed, and let that one moment be the only time she complained about this job. The farmers needed help more than she needed to feel comfortable. The container full of vials found a new home near the opening for the well, since she didn’t need to carry the thing around right now. “You heard him, Sai, let’s go dig.”
The presently small squid appeared on top of Holly's head, and slowly climbed down to the ground. Saia grumbled under his breath, clearly preferring to be the one going in the dark well. He reached up to the nearest stalk of wheat and sliced off a few samples. Another arm caught each piece in midair, while a third held an open vial. He was an efficient cutting machine.
“Uh.” Meanwhile, Holly stared at the box full of tubes, not entirely sure how to proceed. She could literally hand them over to Cass, but that didn’t sound very safe. Moving a shadow-hand looked like it would require more concentration than a regular one. He should focus on going down the well without needing to carry all of these things by himself. Even if the bird helped…no, she could do one better.
Wingardium Leviosa. If she floated the vials down, Cass could pull them out at his leisure. It might be a little excessive to use magic for something relatively mundane, but it’s not like there were in any immediate danger. Holly gestured towards the box and started to focus on her spell. As she raised her hand, the vials lifted out and began the journey towards Cassius. “O.K. I’ll give it while you’re down there.”
As he climbed down into the well, he noticed something odd about it. For starters, it opened up to a decent sized chamber with a few holes about it. He couldn't shake the feeling something was off, but dismissed it as them trying to get ready to dig deeper for the well.
He looked up as Holly called over and began levitating some vials down to him. He began plucking them out of the air with his normal hand as he called up a quick, "Thanks!" before turning back to the holes dug from the sides and ground.
He trudged along, the small pile he was on quickly falling into knee high water. he supposed he was glad he had worn boots, but it was still disconcerting. He slowly trudged his way, and began collecting a few vials of the water, and the mud.
He swirled the water in his first vial as he looked over it. It looked almost thick and dark like tar, but still held the consistency and fluidity of water, running effortlessly around the vial. "Alright, I think I got enough," he called back towards the entrance as he began the walk back.
It was then, about halfway back, that his foot hit something fairly solid under the water, and he tripped with a splash.
She forgot. Listening to the splashing going on at the bottom of the well reminded Holly of a missed opportunity. This mission involved water and getting wet—she knew that ahead of time. If she bothered to make something waterproof for Cass to wear, he might be a little more comfortable down there. She already made most of her clothes with Umbrella Thread these days, so the thought never crossed her mind.
Oh well, now she knew for next time: be better prepared. A gentle prodding brought her attention back to reality. Saia continued poking Holly until she turned around. The squid pointed at the ground, then the box used to carry the vials. Right, he can't actually dig. At least, it would take a lot longer and she had nothing else to do, so why not contribute?
They didn't need a whole lot. She could manage without a proper instrument. Her hands were enough to scrape up a few samples. It might be easier since the ground was already weakened, or maybe all farms were like that. Seeing as she never spent any time playing outside in the dirt as a kid, she had no idea what it normally felt like.
There was the occasional bit of gray that could be tiny rocks, ash, or more dead wheat for all she knew. Holly made sure to find a much larger rock to include and just put it in the box with the other stuff. That way, they had one for sure.
Cass indicated that he was wrapping things up on his end, so Holly moved closer to the well. He probably had pockets somewhere to put all those vials, but she wanted to try and levitate them out so he can climb easier. Plus, by the time he got out she'd have it all stored away and they could move on faster. It seemed more efficient.
“Y'all fine down there? What's it like?” She never thought to imagine what it must at the bottom before now. Seemed like he had enough room to walk around, but that might be more dangerous than a hole going straight down. More room meant more potential for danger, although she didn't expect to find any sort of monster in there. Probably. Hopefully.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he called back up, pushing himself back up with the help of Beck conjuring some supports out of solid shadow. He tried his best to brush off some water on his now soaking clothes, but sighed when he realized the effort was futile and made his way back over towards whatever it was that tripped him.
Reaching down into the water, he fumbled around until his hands fell upon something that felt quite solid. fishing it out of the mud, he pulled his prize up to reveal a rectangle, tightly wound and bound in watertight leather that seemed to show quite the bit of age.
He had to admit, he was curious. Whoever bound this and stuck it down here, not only must have done it long ago, but did it with the intention of it surviving it seemed. "Hey Beck, what do you suppose this is?"
The duck gave a grunt back as it shook the brackish water off of its feathers. "I have not the slightest clue Master Cassius, but we should probably return it to the property owners."
Cassius thought for a moment, scratching his chin. "Or...or we could keep it."
"I beg your pardon?"
Cassius slipped the book into an inner pocket on his coat. "We could check it out on our own time and, if nothing interesting is in it, we could turn it back in."
Beck sighed. "Master Cassius, what you are doing is stealing."
"I don't see anyone's name on it. Besides, if there's something interesting in it, and I do loose it before I get to see, I'll never let myself live it down." He walked his way back over to the opening of the hole before calling up to his partner, and presenting the test samples. "Yeah, I'm good! You wanna float these vials back up?"
She could not follow along with most of the conversation happening at the bottom of the well, but Cass and the duck sounded alright. An injured person would not have such a spirited discussion. Holly let out a sigh of relief, and tried to remember what she was doing before the worrying started.
Right, the vials. She needed to reverse the earlier process and take the containers from Cass back into the box they came from. Thanks for the reminder. Holly never before tried to use this spell to affect something from this far away—not from out of a somewhat dark hole. It might be a waste of time and energy to even try, but attempting to be useful seemed better than standing around twiddling her thumbs.
Besides, if it didn't work, nothing at all would happen. Not like they'd have to start over if she failed. Worse case scenario, she'd have to let Cass do all the work himself. Or she could jump down there and physically take it from him, but let's try the simplest method first.
Full of determination, she called down “I'll try. Just, give it a moment.”
Holly concentrated on the faint glimmer of the glass tubes down in the well. Nothing else mattered. Her focus narrowed until the vials were the only thing left in her mind. One by one, they began their ascent. Seeing each one gradually get closer brought a smile to her face. Who knew it would be this eas—
Her control of the final vial had been the weakest by far, but to watch it slip out of her grasp surprised Holly. Not because it was impossible but she was doing so well. Before she made any move to react, a dark tentacle reached in and grasped the bottle, preventing it from falling too far. Holly turned to find Saia hanging out right beside her, using his own technique to help out. The squid attempted to glare at her with his cold, dark eye as if to condemn her momentary pride.
“Thanks for that,” she conceded, regaining control over the object. While she was in the mood, it felt like a good enough time to thank Cassius for doing the hardest part of the mission. “You too, Cass. I, uh, would've panicked down there, for sure.”
He watched as the bottles slowly lifted from his hands and danced their way slowly to the top of the well, and was ready to catch the rogue falling one before the girl's squid familiar had caught it himself. With a small hint of satisfaction, Cassius nodded to Beck, and the two focused on the shadows around them, willing them into a pillar to carry them back up to the top of the well.
Upon making it up, he hopped off onto the edge of the well and stepped down with a fair bit of grace, his one arm tucked into his pocket, keeping a hand on the cold book. "Yeah, it's no problem really. I'm kinda used to the dark so it doesn't really bug me that much. Besides, I can make myself a shield if something happens down there, and I tend to do better in close quarters thanks to my smithing." He smiled a wide grin at the girl, the sun reflecting brightly off of his glass goggles.
"It was nice to get your help though Holly. Hopefully we can hang out again, hopefully under less...professional circumstances."
With the last of the samples packed away in the box, they were basically done here. Now they simply needed to head back to the lab and complete the delivery portion. Well, at least Holly had to go—Cass didn’t really have anything to give them, apparently, but he could still tag along. He was better at handling all the talking and could give a more detailed response than anything she’d come up with.
As Holly bent down to pick up the container, her familiar took the opportunity to climb onto her back. She ignored him and kept moving.
She had a job to do and needed to focus on actually finishing I time. That way, she would eventually get better and manage to do something more useful than carrying the box. Like going in the well. The hero she wanted to be defeated by a harmless little opening in the ground. Next time she needed to force herself to just do it before anyone else came along.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Cass is cool, and Holly legitimately enjoyed their time together. She smiled back at the man before responding with “Of course. I’d love to meet again. With or without a job.”
Her eyes drifted to his arm again, although this time she wasn’t concerned about the missing one. Those tattoos of his—As a professional, she was always interested in seeing someone else's artwork, but didn’t want to detract from all the digging and sample scooping. Maybe they’d have time later.
