< atton revisited > The information page for Atton has been fully revised and updated with the new map!
< updated calendar > The Fortuna calendar has been updated in the "Other" lore section! This includes a document which displays the calendar for you to see, making it much easier to understand.
< moving map > The first functional map has been released in the News section! This map is also interactive, allowing you to drag and drop between points in order to determine distances. This is the first iteration, and there's more and better to come!
< first annual awards > The results for the First Annual Fortuna Year-End Awards have been posted! Go and take a look at who the finalists were, and who took home the big prizes!
< new default skin > Our new skin has passed the beta test, and is now the new Default for the forums! If you have any issues with this skin, send a PM or Discord to Mellie.
< human lore update > Humans have been updated with TWENTY-FIVE subraces/subcultures which add numerous options, and a little extra lore and flavour.
< magic lore update > Magical Lore has been enhanced with the addition of a post on Magical Education. From Beginner to Expert, this is how you learn the spells.
< a change to member groups > Member groups are now based on storyline! You can change your displayed storyline by editing the settings in your profile.
Welcome to the world of Fortuna, a land of fantastic proportions. This is an original fantasy roleplay that takes place in a world developed over nearly a decade of work and collaboration. We aim to encourage all participants to have a hand in the stories of the characters here, and the world around them. Your choices are key - so make them with pride. You decide who wins the wars, you decide who becomes King, the world is ours, and together we will bring it to life!
Post by Talindra Pherithil on Jan 5, 2017 21:41:29 GMT -7
“Useless, flea-bitten mongrel…”
Tali scoffed at the smuggler and stormed away from his market stall, leaving the man scratching his head and lost somewhere between shocked and insulted. But he was nothing but a waste of her time. When the Defiled Grail had neared Aissic the sorceress had heard some of its crew whisper about the ‘Tarifa underground’, about a place full of all a good-for-nothing pirate could ever want. Cage fights. Seedy brothels. A black market full of illegal and dangerous goods. It was this last part that had particularly piqued her interest, and as luck would have it they would pass by the port of Tarifa on their journey, long enough at least for the high elf to take a look. Sure, by no means did Tali expect ancient magical artifacts hanging like grapes to be picked off the walls, but surely the black market of a busy port would at least have something useful? She would need any advantage she could get after all if she wanted to go after the Supreme.
The sheer amount of garbage the sorceress found disgusted even her skepticism. Out of all the market stalls in the sewers Tali had found one, one, which had goods that could be considered magical in the loosest of definitions. Even then, barely. What she found were the kind of magical playthings even her most inexperienced and talentless pupils could have made in the academy, and by the time the smuggler had begun peddling one of the trinkets as a “rare and exceedingly powerful Rielcian charm” her shock had subsided and the sorceress had begun to feel personally attacked. The only way the man was ever going to see real magic was if she burned his stall to the ground right then and there. And she was tempted.
Lost in her now sour mood, it was only when she was nearly on top of them that the high elf recognized the two crew members of the Grail. The part elf and the beastfolk. Their names, like any real interest in them she could give, eluded her, but against her better judgement Tali approached. They were at least better than the remaining miserable lot around them. In fact, as she neared the high elf even began to remember their names.
“Leigh and…Katie, what a surprise. I would ask what brings you here, but no doubt such a place feels right at home to the likes of you.”
Her voice was no doubt bitter, but pirate or not, the sorceress took no enjoyment from visiting the filthy likes of the Tarifa underground. Least of all when it gained her nothing.
Post by Leigh Haskell on Jan 6, 2017 10:57:39 GMT -7
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[attr="class","wavesundtext"] She had to scoff as Kali misunderstood what Leigh had meant by private offerings. It was a reminder that Kali was new. She'd been a cage fighter, not some kind of criminal overlord. But Leigh knew there was more going on here than cage fights, brothels, and black markets. There were some things that money really couldn't by topside. Things that were almost beyond Leigh's loose set of morals - but not quite. She'd not provided for Tarifa's underbelly before, but she assumed there'd be something just like it.
She prepared to follow Kali into the arena, the sound already making her ears buzz, but something - someone - stopped her. Phoenix. Leigh steeled her face to keep from showing her displeasure, and turned to meet the high elf's eyes. Leigh had nearly a foot over the woman, and yet Talindra always made her feel as though she were looking up at her. Not today. This was Leigh's job -- and there was a damn good reason she hadn't asked their top sorceress to come along. "Phoenix," She greeted, almost not able to part her gritted teeth. Leigh would never admit it, but she'd had an interest in Talindra when she'd first arrived on the Grail -- the attraction had faded quickly when she'd had a conversation. The way that Talindra called Kali 'Katie' only reinforced the feeling.
"I guess you didn't hear," She settled into her usual smirk, happy that she knew something the Phoenix didn't, "Top secret operation for the Captain. Isn't that right, Kali?"
Kali didn't know who this person was who had approached them, but apparently she knew Leigh. And almost knew of Kali, though when she said 'Katie' the satyr grimaced. The woman who approached was much shorter than both Leigh or Kali and she wore an elaborate mask with a beak and a bunch of feathers which really just showed that she was clearly a showoff. Leigh called her 'Phoenix' or perhaps that was just an observation on what kind of bird the mask was representing, and then seemed delighted to inform her that they were on a top secret operation for the captain. When she said 'isn't that right, Kali' and stressed the name a bit to show Phoenix that she had been wrong with her greeting, Kali nodded and said, "So who the fuck are you?"
Post by Talindra Pherithil on Jan 7, 2017 21:42:57 GMT -7
The sorceress turned to the satyr and gasped, feigning shock as she lifted a palm to cover her mouth. So, it was Kali, was it?
“You wound me, Kathy. Surely Leigh here has told you at least a little about me? Almost makes one feel unappreciated for all the moments we shared together.”
Tali gave the half-elf a smirk. Appreciation indeed. The sorceress knew full well the opinion much of the Defiled Grail had of her. She was, after all, everything many of them despised. Of noble blood. Once rich and powerful. Clean. So it was that the edge in Leigh’s greeting was not lost to Tali, and if anything it gave enough satisfaction to the high elf to make up for the fiasco she had endured only moments earlier. After all, Tali had not joined the pirate ship to make friends out of sea urchins, and she had little desire to start doing so.
What Leigh said next though did put a genuine frown on the high elf’s face.
“Is that so?”
The sorceress had heard nothing about a “secret operation”, but whatever skepticism she felt, the smug satisfaction in which the half-elf informed her only served to irk Tali enough to bite at Leigh’s taunt.
“I find that hard to believe. Tell me then, why would the Captain send you two, and yet not even mention a word of it to me?”
Post by Leigh Haskell on Jan 8, 2017 10:28:37 GMT -7
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[attr="class","wavesundtext"] The Phoenix continued to get Kali's name wrong, and now Leigh knew she was doing it on purpose. Who did that? Leigh thought of things she could call the pompous elf. Pigeon, seemed pleasant. Though she certainly wouldn't feign ignorance about it. "Not just us two, actually. There's more of us here. And all of us know the secrets," Leigh made a face as if she were thinking: "As for why the Captain didn't tell you..."
She loved this. She loved the way that Phoenix knew nothing. The way her face had shifted to displeasure. The way that Leigh had been able to so quickly shut her down. She wanted this to last. For Phoenix to have it eat at her, at least until she got to speak with the Captain once more. That'd give Leigh at least a half-day of pleasure.
She gave an exaggerated shrug and finally gave her answer: "I d'no, Phoenix. Perhaps... Perhaps he doesn't trust you as much as you think he does."
The woman called her by a different wrong name this time, making it clear that even now that she knew her name she had no intention of using it. Kali had a relatively neutral opinion of the woman before, because she didn't know her and held no ill will towards someone trying to remember her name and getting it wrong. She didn't even care that the woman was a showoff with her weird feather mask, because frankly there was a lot weirder things she had seen back in the Feywilds. Her question regarding the woman's identity was the same way she would ask about anyone who came up and seemed to know her (if only vaguely) when Kali herself had no idea who the woman was. But when she called her Kathy it became clear the woman was actually just a bitch, and Kali decided she was ok with not knowing her.
The woman seemed disbelieving that there was something going on that she didn't know about, and Kali realized she was also a pirate. How unfortunate. Leigh explained that the plan included more than just the two of them, and suggested the captain didn't trust the woman as much as she thought he did. Kali glanced over at the entrance to where the cage fights were, just steps away. "Not that it isn't super exciting being a third wheel to whatever this is, but if you two wanna chat I think I'm gonna sign up as a drop in fighter and see if I can't take out whoever the champion is, ok?" If her contact was inside betting, or even somewhere that he would hear about the matches, hearing her name announced as a fighter would definitely draw him out and it had the benefit of her getting to beat the shit out of someone too.
Post by Maldrem "Wight" on Jan 9, 2017 9:41:22 GMT -7
Ah, old friends, old flames~
W hen Mal and Colossus approached the two guards at the door, only one of them gave the two a guarded look. He appeared hostile right away, his hand twitching at the weapon he held at his belt. But the other guard simply gave Maldrem a smirk and a nod of her head.
"Wight. Been a while," she said, her words seeming to slightly ease her partner, who looked at her curiously now.
"Hey there Salza," Maldrem chirped back, winking. "Is the lady of the house in?"
"She is. Said I was supposed to kill you on sight though."
Salza's partner looked hostile again, but Maldrem ignored him, instead clutching at his chest in a dramatic fashion. "Kill me, she says! I say perhaps she ought to be the one to suffer a thousand deaths, for all the heartache she has given me!"
Salza laughed. "Doubt she sees it that way."
"You may be right about that," Mal agreed, nodding solemnly. "So, Salza, what will it take for you to not kill me and instead let me in to see my dearest heart?"
Salza hummed thoughtfully, and her partner was back to looking extremely confused as to what he should be doing. Mal wondered if he was trained not to speak unless Salza gave him the go-ahead or if he just didn't know what to say. "What have you got on you?"
Maldrem laughed and reached into his pocket, tugging out a golden coin. "I stole this from my own captain on a bet. I'm already super attached to it, given how harrowing it was... but I could part with it."
Salza shrugged. "Sure, why not?" She plucked the thing from Mal's hand, her partner looking shocked that she was allowing this, and even Colossus looking surprised that Maldrem had parted with it so easily after how much he'd been bragging about it.
"You're a diamond, Salza," he said, offering the woman a peck on the cheek as she casually opened the door for him. When Mal noticed her partner staring slack-jawed now, he smirked. "Awww, don't get jealous!" He then leaned forward and gave the man a kiss on the cheek as well. "There ya go."
And with that he stepped inside, Colossus following behind him after ducking to get through the door with his larger frame. Salza could be heard laughing at her sputtering doormate as she closed the door.
"Was that one o' yer tricks?" Colossus asked, after they'd taken a few steps down the hall.
"Nope! I respect Salza too much for that. Gave her the honest to Goddess real coin."
Colossus snorted. "Respect, ya say, but that didn't stop ya from trickin' Leigh."
Maldrem laughed. "Between you and me, Colossus? Salza scares me a lot more than Leigh." He'd once watched her kill a man by making him choke on his own eyeball. No thank you. "And her boss? Well, I'm even more scared of her."
"You mean the lady we're meetin'?"
"Yep!"
Colossus snorted. This should be good.
They'd passed a number of doors already, none of them open and no one moving between them, and when they finally reached the door at the end of the hall, Maldrem gave it a firm three knocks. It opened seemingly of its own accord, and he stepped inside. Colossus, perhaps cautiously, waited outside the door, watching.
A woman was seated at a table inside, black-skinned and regal as she studied some documents on her table. She looked up as Maldrem entered, and in her eyes there was fire. Literally, Colossus noticed; she seemed to have moving pupils of flame instead of what was normal, and the way her hair moved as she lifted her head was unreal - it looked like real hair, but it also looked almost immaterial, like wispy smoke, some of it disappearing with the motion and then reappearing a moment later. Even with her head held still, the hair still floated and curled about as though weightless.
"Wight," she said, the fire in her eyes growing as she took him in.
Maldrem smiled at her. "Hace tiempo que no te veo, mi amor."
She stood, rounded the table, and clutched Maldrem's cheeks in one hand, squeezing painfully with her thumb and index finger as she pressed his cheeks in and forced his mouth to part. Her touch burned his skin, steam visibly rising from where she gripped him. "I told Salza to kill you," she hissed.
Colossus was making to duck through the doorway and get her off of him, but he paused when he saw Maldrem gently lay a hand on her wrist, and the steaming of his skin came to a stop. "Bu' arenchu glahg she dign't?" he asked in spite of the impairment.
The fire in her eyes, a roaring orange, calmed into a soft, small blue, flickering lightly back and forth. "I am."
She crushed their mouths together, her grip on Maldrem's cheeks loosening that he might be able to kiss her properly, and he did so with aplomb. His tongue mingled with hers and tasted the powerful heat she offered, and he groaned into the act, a pleased chuckle being offered from her in response. Their bodies pressed close, and Mal's hand was instantly reaching into the back of her dress, rubbing against her warm skin, and she was greedily making a grab at his chest, feeling at the hard planes and scraping her nails against him.
It was only when Colossus coughed that the two were reminded of their audience, and finally pulled apart. Maldrem smiled at his gorgeous, stunning, terrifying love, and then gave his handsome companion his attention once again. "Colossus, allow me to introduce Reina de Castillo. We're in love sometimes."
Post by Leigh Haskell on Jan 9, 2017 10:31:34 GMT -7
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[attr="class","wavesundtext"] She hadn't quite forgotten about Kali's presence - she couldn't - but the Phoenix had a way of getting under Leigh's skin. She wanted to prove the pompous ass a fool, no better than any of the rest of them, and it was easy for Leigh to let it distract her. It was Kali speaking up that reminded her of why they were here. It wasn't to embarrass Talindra. It was to get a damn airship.
She used her hook to snag Kali's collar as she began to enter the arena, enjoying the fact that she didn't need to worry about cutting into the satyr. No gentle touches. Leigh could do that. "Don't be stupid," She advised, knowing that Kali ought to have what was in there covered, "I'll be just behind you."
Post by Talindra Pherithil on Jan 11, 2017 11:31:27 GMT -7
Not just them? Behind her mask Tali furrowed her brow as she listened to Leigh. Was the entire damnable crew of the Defiled Grail wandering the Tarifa underground? More importantly, was she the only one unaware of this “operation”? The exaggerated shrug. The self-satisfied answer. The glint in her eye. It was all enough to make the high elf glare at Leigh and ponder how much the captain would truly miss one sailor, but neither could Tali deny that the other pirate had begun to make her doubt.
Had she been left in the dark by Merlyn?
However, whatever misgivings she had, whether true or not, Tali would deal with them later. For now, the way the half-elf had spoken of “the secrets” was like…like arguing with a child. A child who was becoming far too smug for her own good. Tali had been made to look a fool, and that was not something she was about to let go of lightly.
“The more you speak the less convinced I become of this ‘secret operation’. However…”
Tali smiled and mustered what mock sincerity she could.
“Pretend for a moment that I believe you. Such an operation is no doubt dangerous, no? And the Captain would certainly want nothing less than complete success.”
As Kali announced her intention to leave the sorceress turned toward her, though for a moment she kept her eyes fixed on Leigh.
“Which is why I will be assisting you. Now, I believe the satyr wishes us to follow her. Best not tarry when we have such an important job to do.”
And with that Tali gave the other pirate one last smug grin and pushed past her before following Kali into the fighting pits, as the sound of cheering, shouting, and the occasional scream engulfed her.
As Kali turned to leave she felt the cold sting of Leigh's hook catch her and she smirked at the warning not to be stupid before continuing into the arena. She knew Leigh would follow eventually, and even if she didn't she could pretty much handle things from here. Entering into the arena was like coming home. The sounds, the sights, even the smells brought her back to Muerte and her own arena where she had spent so many of her days. It brought out her bloodlust like nothing else, and she realized again how much she had missed exactly this while being aboard the Grail. She checked the wraps around her knuckles as she approached someone who looked to be in charge of things, an announcer of sorts who kept track of the fighters so the bookies could hassle for bets. He was busy writing things on a ledger when she came over, but she placed a hand on his shoulder and got his attentions. "Kali. I'm here to fight your champion."
The man looked her up and down and smirked at her. "Yeh arright," he answered, writing something in his books. Kali didn't care if he thought she would get flattened in the ring, announcing Kali here to fight the champion would bring out her contact and if the champion was actually half decent she'd even get a good fight out of it. Release some tension. She turned and saw that Leigh and that Phoenix lady had followed her in and she went over to them. "Leigh, keep an eye out for the contact while I go get ready. If you see him before the fight's over tell him Kali said it'll go down like Fa'nelth, and to bet accordingly. Greasing his wheels with a winning bet will make everything else easier down the line, yeh?" She looked to Phoenix. Leigh already knew what their contact looked like, what his name was, the whole deal. Phoenix was in the dark, and Kali wouldn't make an effort to change that. Kali nodded to both of them before heading off around to the back where they had a place for upcoming fighters to get ready. This was gonna be fun. She could hear the announcer shout above the din of the crowd that a newcomer Kali the satyr was going to take on their beloved champion after the next fight. The crowd also seemed to think she was going to get flattened. She hoped the bookies made some good odds for those bets.
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