AMIA ARCHIVE • View topic

Perpetually shrouded in a preternatural mist, the Court of the Dead offers a truly imposing visage. Monoliths of dark stone tower above, creating choked alleys filled with only the chill mist akin to that which would be found in a graveyard. What trees remain standing jut out at odd angles from the stone that surround them, and seem to have been petrified long ago. Ruined stonework can be seen here and there amidst the walls of stone, hinting at the buildings and towers that might be entombed within.

Even the crashing of the sea waves is muted to a gentle lapping but the oppressive and pervasive silence, the utter lack of anything living present here.

Soon after the rising of the Third Court, the High Arcanist leaves the comfort
of the library and does a round, examining it..

The Keeper would as soon as the opportunity permits take a walk around the court. Two buildings in particular seem of great interest to him and while he does not enter them he carefully examines them inch by inch.

With poignant thudding sounds, the two completed bridges are put into place by the undead laborers, who set about shoring up the connection to be more permanent, between the third and final Court.

After carefully examining every corner of the Court, the High Arcanist unlocks
massive doors and enters one of the structures. Some time later he is seen exiting
and counting his steps, as if he was following a certain geometrical pattern.

The Lacedons now finished with their work would convey on one building, waiting for their master.

With the aid of the High Captain the skeletons had now been outfitted with the necessary tools to begin working on the building of Grim's choosing. Six Lacedons and one hundred and fourteen skeletons began their work tirelesly. Grim would spend many of his waking hours supervising the workforce he had created to make sure no harm would come to any part of the building. He would make sure the unliving where methodical in their approach. No rush and with great care.

Leaving his undead team with the directions needed to finish up the last of the interior work in the Court of the Living, Luc turns his attention to the newest addition, having his tools and outdoor workshop hauled over. His attention seems to be on the "northern" side of the court, encrusted with stone and rock. His first task seems to be simply clearing away a usable stretch of "coast", using the Wands of Stoneshaping gifted to him by a long-departed Drow Matron to mold the rocky surface into flat space. The extra stone is hardly wasted, being sculpted to the side of the City in such a way as to extend the usable surface that much farther out. As he goes, he leaves odd markings and measurements in red paint, though the Castellan's intended design can't be discerned just yet.

*On one of Draco's strolls through the Court of the Dead he spots the Castellan as he shaped the rock with the use of a wand. Watching him silently for a moment waiting for the spell to finish so as not to break his concentration before he approached. He comes to a stop a few feet behind the man, resting casually against his staff*

"Castellan, I would like to offer my assistance in what it is you are doing here exactly. As I'm sure you know I have some experience in transmutation magics, which is essentially what your doing there. I would only need some time to prepare the spells required and your direction."

*After receiving Luca's plans Draco takes the time to read them and returns to the northern section the next day in the afternoon fully prepared to aid him. With half a dozen spells of Stoneshaping memorized he follows Luca's plans to the letter, molding the rocky surface into a flat space. Following Luca's technique to sculpt any extra rock to the side of the city in order to extend it farther out. Leaving the measurements and markings to the engineer, only there to provide magical assistance. Each day afterwards he returns in the afternoon to cast his spells anew.*

With Draco's help, Luca's project swiftly takes form. The side of the City is extended, and four large canals are shaped out of the extension, each large enough to berth a decently sized vessel. One canal is larger than its three siblings. Heavy timber crossbeams are embedded into the stone near the bottom of the canals, with just enough room for a tall construct to work underneath them. With magical aid the stonework goes by quickly, and Luca soon settles into the more intricate carpentry. The skeletons of piers, cranes and hoists soon take form, with the larger canal receiving heavier equipment. Anyone with some architecture or engineering talent immediately recognize a brutally efficient and simple shipyard in the making, though with still much work to be done. Luca is as grim and dour as ever, preferring to work through the dead of night without the aid of any torches. He hardly ever seems to eat or sleep, only taking a reprieve and leaving the City when the sun is at its zenith. He returns with bags full of wild game when the worst of the light has abated, delivering them to the Kraken and continuing his labor.

Whatever work Luca and Draco accomplishes in the court Grim seems to pay little attention to it. A polite nod if they pass each other as he keeps his focus on the building the skeletons are working on.

Calypso would stay mostly to herself unless approached or hailed during her daily patrols. Keeping an almost habitual march, although slowed down some, she would simply observe the operations going on then make her way on around the perimeter following her patrol route until her siloutte slowly disappears out of the range of sight.

Now recovered, Luca seems keen to continue with his project. During the day, however, he now forgoes undead labor in favor of putting the refugees to work. With more talented labor, progress speeds up considerably. His approach with the refugees is vastly different, however. He maintains a calm, almost lazy demeanor, teaching them new skills and letting them set the pace of the work. He doesn't attempt any coercion or intimidation to get people to help with him with the growing shipyard. At the end of the day, everyone that chose to work is compensated modestly from the City's funds.

When night falls and everyone is safely in their assigned homes, he sets the undead back on the task, to ensure no hours are wasted. He gives them extremely simply tasks, such as cleaning up after the day's work, moving building materials to save the refugees from the heaviest lifting, and staging tools and supplies to be ready for the next day. He seems to keep the tasks simple now so that they don't require so much supervision, allowing him to go elsewhere during the night hours...

A duergar proclaiming himself king can be seen walking around looking at the city.
*Shaking his head he would head to the library*
*After arriving at the library he would consult with a female duegar he refers to as chancellor*

*He then proceeded to request an audience with a manned named Luca after returning to his temporary residence in the city*

The skeletal work force Grim had mainted on one particular building halted their work. The Skeletons instead shifted their focus and would proceed to begin working on the large boulders which take up space all throughout the court. Grim can be seen giving them some final instructions before he assumes his usual way of just looking at them, waiting for them to finish their work.

*A couple days after Draco returned to the city, after he recovered he returned to his work on the docks. Following Luca's plans to the letter, working alongside the living laborers every afternoon.*

The living and unliving workforce would not be seen working on any specific building in the court. Instead hard labour is done to remove and alter the large stone formations. The Keeper can be seen directing the workforce for the time being.

The High Captain, for his own part, can be seen directing his off duty guardsmen to work in the Court clearing the way as well, offering the force a bonus to their salary as incentive to those looking for extra money.

The Keeper accompanied by the woman known as Jezabel was seen walking around the court, talking and motioning to the rocks covering the buildings. After a rather lengthy discussion they left the court for the time being.

On an early morning the Keeper walks into the court and rounding up the numerous skeletons into one place he begins counting them and stacking them close to each other. Having the skeletons packed tightly together in a small area he searches through his bags for some items to prepare casting Awaken Undead.

A young man with a grey outfit that had chains attached to them could be seen hacking away at the Coral reefs in the Court of the Dead thus beginning the work to excavate the Tower.

Early in the morning the High Arcanist visited the Court of the Dead
and rounded up half the workforce. Minutes later, the skeletons
followed him into the Temple of Velsharoon.

At mid morning, the Keeper could be seen entering the Court of the Dead, walking with purpose towards the Temple of Jergal as he often was want to do. This time however, he stopped at the petrified tree beside it - as much a part of the sea rock surrounding the temple as a one living thing - and begun a wordless hymn.

One by one he visited each of the trees in the Court and at each he would pause, as though in deep concentration, staring at the trees. And at each, thin runes of a blue-white, pale hue would etch themselves into being, floating inches above the cobblestones, carved by unseen hands into the fold of reality itself. As each rune was completed, strands of that same ethereal light - mere threads of a tapestry - would wind a spiraling path towards the roots of the trees, crawling and slithering upwards into the boughs. Any who stopped to observe the runes as a whole, would be struck by the profound depth that each possessed, as though each rune represented not a single word or even sentence, but a whole story of its own. Indeed, when examined individually, a keen observer would make out innumerable smaller runes tucked away inside each individual larger rune, as though the words to an entire story of the tree's life - or perhaps one possible life - were held protectively inside.

Though the Keeper faltered in his stride twice as he visited each tree, the weight of his efforts obvious in his slowed pace and occasional pant of breath, his determination saw him through and the very last tree was similarly set aglow. And as it was, the gently spiraling energies around each of the eighteen remaining trees in the Court of the Dead - so much akin to gravestones for their past selves - would thicken and tighten, seeming to graft onto the stoney forms as muscle to the bone beneath, enfolding every subtle curve of bough and knot of trunk.

With ponderous speed and tedious care, the true ritual would begin as the Keeper centered himself within the Court of the Dead, within the heart of the wider ritual circle as any skilled in magic - arcane or divine - would realize. Mere handfuls of the tiny runes would drift along the currents of the blue-white energy into the trees, seeming to feed them ever-so-slowly, while still other runes would simply fade from view before spanning the distance between rune and tree.

Whatever the Keeper might be attempting, it would be clear even to the layman that the process he has begun is likely to take several hours at the least, the realization further enforced as fully four of the city's Sentinels would take station on each side of the Keeper, their blades a clear, unspoken threat to any who might disturb the man.

Some eighteen hours later, a flash of white light would fill the Court of the Dead for a mere heartbeat, before gently subsiding as the Keeper falls to his knees from exhaustion. The trees which the Keeper had seemed to labor to affect, would retain their stoney, petrified state. It is not however the physical form of the tress which now draw the eye, or cause the jaw to drop open in wonderment.

Any visiting the Court of the Dead would be struck by the beauty not of the physical tree, but of what seems to be the very spirit of the tree drawn forth and made manifest. Delicate tendrils of white light snake up the length of the stone, splitting and diverging into a myriad of tender branches and boughs. From each branch, rich whorls of light shaped in roughly ovoid patterns form the foliage of the breathtaking visage. Even blossoms, small spheres of intricate filigree opened gently to the misty air of the Court, grace the boughs here and there.

Every one of the eighteen remaining trees within the Court of the Dead is bathed in this spiritual light, a gentle beauty within the stark chill of the Court that otherwise lives up to its name. A truly magnificent sight.

As of last night, the High Arcanist is seldom seen outside the Court of the Dead. It seems
that he is taking great interest into restoring the streets of the Court for whatever reason,
as he coordinates the workers, and helps them to the best of his abilities, applying magic
and his knowledge of stone masonry alike. Most of the time, his skeletal fingers are plunged
right into the hard stone, as if it was made of soft clay. He seems to be unaffected by the
occasional frightened look from the workers. Perhaps they shall work harder in order to
remove themselves as soon as possible from the unpleasant apparition. He also keeps on
casting Mass Haste in order to speed up the workers.

When the shift is over for the workers he offers them triple their daily salary for extra work.
He keeps working unceasingly, day and night, sometimes aided by a menacing frostbitten wight.
In case none of the workers would be willing to work double-shift, he returns with a squad of
well equipped skeletons and organizes them into labor.

At the request of the High Arcanist, Kuria would wander the Court of the Living advising any available hands that triple pay will be offered to anyone working a double shift helping to clear stone from the Court of the Dead.

The efforts of the High Arcanist and his Stone Shape spells, aided by the workers of the Living City, finally pay off as the last section of the original Court is restored. With the work of the living completed, and the threat of war no longer looming over the city from across the waters, the Living City soon bends its will once more towards its own skeletal workforce, which ascends from the crypts in an unceasing line, clattering along three abreast.

The Court of the Dead now more closely resembles its name, as the skeletal labor force fairly swarms over the mist-shrouded Court, beginning the work of rebuilding the missing pieces of the western-most and northern-most buildings, as well as beginning to erect a platform similar to the ones found in the other Courts.

Losing no time, the High Arcanist would now shift his attention to the platforms, supervising the
work and assisting it where possible with additional stone shape spells. It would also appear that
he is yet again counting his steps, in the near proximity of the platforms.

Court of the Dead

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