Fantasy RP

[Tikobe]

Othan

"It's not a problem," I say as I smile towards him. "I'm going to catch some rest for tomorrow. We'll leave in the morning once all three of us are finish preparing."

I begin to leave and head towards my bed chambers. Preferably before I ruin Northan's idealistic image of me that'll be tarnished when Kallian and my father explain what happened at family night tonight.

While I was still concerned about Ielle, she was drunk and a little shocked. I best give her some time before I talk to her. A few days time, at least.

[Bannanachair]

(Lurkers are more than welcome to join if you want to. I know that there are people lurking. Just send me a PM if you're interested but don't know if you'll join and I'll make you interested enough to want to join.)

@ Alfred: Artie didn't seem to notice nor hear you, as he continued working on fixing the completely destroyed wheel, or at least putting something together that resembled a steering mechanism.

@ Jonos: As you begin firing arrows down below you, the defenders notice what you're doing and begin firing arrows up at you. However, most of them don't have any experience trying to shoot at a flying target, so they tend to miss you or else simply glance off of Solmyr's armour without doing much damage.

@ Othan: Northan nodded, and entered the solar as you left him. When you arrive at your bedchambers, you find that Thalla wasn't there. Maybe she was off doing something else. Either way, today was a very long day, and so you're probably lucky not to have to deal with her.

(I wanted to do a scene with Thalla but I also wanted to keep the RP moving, so I'll do that later)

[Tikobe]

Othan

I take a deep breath. Quite a bit happened today, but all in all, besides for family night, it wasn't a bad day. I hop into the bed and crawl into the covers as I close my eyes and prepare to drift off into sleep.

(Interestingly enough, I do believe this is the first time I've had to make a post about going to sleep. And if it isn't, it's certainly in the single digits. Not complaining, just sharing my realization that we don't actually put sleeping as part of rping, especially in favor of time skipping)

[Duck14]

(Tikobe , you’ve now given Tim a chance to give you a wacky dream adventure.)

Alfred

“Damn it,” I curse as I realise that Artie hadn’t noticed me in the slightest. I leaned closer to him still grasping onto the railing with one hand and grab him by the shoulder with the other. I didn’t want to shock him but I had no other way to signify my prescence.

[Bannanachair]

@ Othan: As you drift off to sleep, you have a peculiar dream. The dream is of you and your family: You begin running with Northan down a dark hallway in a castle that you've never been to before. The man chasing you is of the same foreign ethnicity that Raethus is half of and that is evident in his father Wyst: Cavelander, maybe Riftlander. The man has a cut down his jaw, and Northan's sword was covered in blood. Was it Northan who cut the man? The man managed to catch up to you and sliced Northan, and then you fell.

You fell into a court led by Kallian. You couldn't figure out the words that he was saying, but when he saw you, you were suddenly just before his throne, Kallian with a knife in his hand, as he was stabbing at you.

"Help!" Shouted Northan's voice from afar. Where was he?

You fell again into the middle of a battle in a storm. This was wrong, you shouldn't be in the midst of the fighting, you're a strategist. By the time you got your bearing you noticed what appeared to be a draconic figure fighting against the storm, with laughter cackling all around you in the place of thunder. Darrien Gast was at the head of the opposing army, and he sighted you and charged straight at you, seemingly cured of his limp.

"Help!" Shouted Northan's voice yet again, and once again the scene shifted. A sickhouse, where Horthon lay dying and where your father lay dying and where your son lay dying, each of different ailments: Horthon dying of disease, Earl Thander dying of age and Thander Marthus dying of injuries.

"Help!' Shouted Northan's voice, but he couldn't be shouting at you, the man with the bloody red gape in his face killed him years ago. You're in Nargon, with Laia and her children in stocks being humiliated by the public, and her husband's bastard son chained to a throne being carried by common people.

"Help!" Shouted the now familiar voice of a dead man as you saw your daughters, both fully grown, in slavery, being raped by dozens of men. Ielle's breast was cut and both girls were screaming as their captors had their way with them.

HELP! Shouted a voice, and suddenly you were back in the castle you were first in, kneeling over Northan's lifeless form. He darted up and, still wounded, spoke several more words. HELP ME BACK HOME.

A cold hand was placed upon your shoulder from behind, a bony hand bare of flesh sending a chill down your spine, and you awoke in a sweat. Thalla was lying in her slip next to you in your bed. Looking out your window, you suppose that you probably have half an hour before the sun rises.

@ Alfred: As soon as you grabbed him, he looked at you, suddenly aware of your presence. He tried to speak, but you couldn't hear him, so he leaned closer and shouted in your ear - still barely audible over the cacophony around you. "The wheel's been destroyed, cap'n! We'll die if we can't steer the ship and we can't steer the ship! We need to fix the wheel!"

[Leggo]

Jonos

I have an unorthodox idea to help my men take the front gate. After I do this, I’m going to go find my men and attack with them. My vassals can certainly handle the gate. I look for a part of the front wall that’s long and unobstructed so I can land Solmyr into a gallop and trample as many defenders as possible.

[Tikobe]

(Judging from how it happened after you called it, I blame the dream sequence on you, duck.)

Othan

A glance down at Thalla and a powerful shiver was sent down my spine. Was it the sudden presence of my wife while I slept that caused the nightmare?

I wouldn't be surprised.

I wasn't really worried about the contents of the nightmares. I've even had ones where Kallia went crazy and tried to kill me. That was haunting, more so than the other nightmares of being betrayed by my family. Really, at this point the only ones that didn't scare me were the nightmares of Thalla. I hope that wasn't as bad as it sounded.

Furthermore the nightmare itself contained a few absurd points. There should be few men that could best Northan in combat, and any who did shouldn't be able to win against Northan and another, regardless of the level of swordsmanship that Northan's partner had, even if said level was that of my own. Furthermore, while Kallian and I may not have the brotherly bonds as expected of family, we had some trust and respect. I could hardly see him betraying me. And then there was the matter of Darrian Gast. I would've never ventured onto the battlefield, and Darrian, who I fear because I consider him to be of a similar kind as me, even if he is misguided by notions of "morality," would also never do so.

What am I making justifications for? I'm not a superstitious man, and so long as I serve the great lord, I need not fear anything. Even then, it raised some questions. Perhaps I should ask Wyst for his family's origins. I had been with Raethus for a while, though I still do not know where the Shans hail from. And in spite of the confidence I had in Northan's skills, I should start giving him an escort of half dozen or so men. He is, after all, a man of the Mallowater family, and I would not be forgiven if he died because I overestimated his skills.

The morning draws near. I start to dress myself and get prepared for today's journey to Castle Shan. I keep on eye on Thalla so that she doesn't wake up in the middle of this.

[Bannanachair]

@ Jonos: You manage to find a small landing strip that meets your requirements, and you manage to trample several men before they caught on to what you were doing and moved their shields to block you. This exposed their flanks and allowed your men climbing ladders an easier time getting a foothold on the wall and an easier time killing the defenders of Norbury.

@ Othan: Both Northan and Raethus would likely be up either at this time or soon. Northan is probably in the courtyard practicing his horsemanship or dueling skills while Raethus is probably making preparations for the two of you to depart later today. The ride is only going to be six hours, so you probably have an opportunity to do things with your morning if you'd like to.

(It was a "wacky dream adventure" Tikobe, not a prophetic nightmare full of foreshadowing for what's going to happen later in the RP.)

[Duck14]

(I will take full blame for the wacky dream adventure. Everyone needs them.)

Alfred

My mind raced, how could we possibly fix the wheel in this weather. The storm could strike down on the helm once more as we started to fix it. But we had to try, it was the only chance that we had. We had to steer, we had to get to the shore. I uselessly swept some water from my face and leaned close to the navigator. “Alright! Tell me what to do!”

[Tikobe]

(I know. But I still feel like making Othan skittish. Just for fun. Also gave me ideas, ideas which were presented with the previous post)

Othan

Do things. In the castle. Where there's an entire family I just pissed off. Heheh. I'm not that stupid.

Even then, I suppose it's not like there's nothing I need to do. As I get dressed I begin to leave the room, not even aware I was subconsciously moving as silently as possible to avoid waking my wife and seeing her go from making a nightmarish dream to making a nightmarish reality.

Assuming I manage to sneak out unawares to even my own mind, I begin to head off to the kitchen. I think this morning is a good morning to have a private breakfast and then hide from the rest of the Mallowaters.

[Bannanachair]

@ Alfred: "I don't have a fucking clue what to do, cap'n, pardoning my language!" At his apology for cursing you realized just how young Artie really was given that most experienced sailors curse... Well, like sailors. "I'm not an engineer or a shipbuilder and I'm not even a good helmsman!"

@ Othan: As you arrive in the kitchens, you notice that Northan was still eating his breakfast. "Othan, you're up earlier than normal. Trouble sleeping?" And then, almost as if it were an afterthought, he added "Oh, and don't worry about the kids. They were worried about what the necessities of war had done to you, but I explained to them that ultimately you made the hard choices that are required in a leader - almost a thousand enemy men died in your ploy to take Treehold, which was important for supply lines to be able to get to the bulk of father's army to save thousands of our - well, yours and father's, because I was too young to fight then - men. Ielle was still fairly pissed off at you, but given how much she had to drink, I doubt she'll remember much of the story anyway. Thander Marthus, Arnie and Thurum are back to idolizing you as the pinnacle of strategic forethought."

[Tikobe]

(I keep shit talking Thalla but notice how we've never even talked to Thalla at all. Hell, we just saw her for the first time literally a few posts ago, and that was only in passing.)

Othan

I breathe a sigh of relief.

"I thank you for that. The matter was eating away at me quite a bit last night. I was obsessing over how to calm the children down and not make them even more upset at me. And indeed, I was haunted by an outlandish dream last night, though it's not important," I say as I pull out a chair and relax. I was grateful that there was someone like Northan who was able to fix things. Had it been one of my other siblings, if they could've achieved it, I don't think they would've.

There was also Thalla but one of her many dreadful aspects was how unpredictable she was. Sure, she may try to talk to the children about these things, but she could also just as likely start scolding me instead for telling the kids about my tactics, or start scolding Kallian about letting me speak about them or even scold father for raising me "the wrong way."

Once more, another shiver travels down my back.

[Duck14]

Alfred

I pat him on the back absently. Of course, it was my job, I didn’t really want to get in the way of any headway he may have made. But this was down to me now. “Alright lad, move aside a little. Let me handle this.” I grunted as I placed myself in front of the steering wheel to properly assess the damage. We didn’t have much time but I didn’t want to blunder before I made any progress.

[Bannanachair]

(I have plans for Thalla to justify Othan's dislike of her.)

@ Othan: "We have time," Northan said. "I'm not meeting my friends at the practice yard for another hour, and though your son's a good squire, he tends to sleep in. What was the outlandish dream about?"

@ Alfred: The mechanism was completely obliterated by the lightning strike. Attempting to repair it would be essentially futile. You'd probably have an easier time of operating the rudder and the sails manually than you would of fixing the helm.

[Tikobe]

Othan

"It was about nothing in particular. Just one of those peculiar nightmares we get every now and then. Honestly, even as we speak my memory of it is starting to fade," I casually explain, although my memory of it hadn't faded at all. "Thander Marthus will be with you this morning? Would you be troubled if I were to join you and watch to examine my son's progress in his studies?"

[Bannanachair]

@ Othan: "Not at all. He'll be ready to be knighted within the year, I reckon. I've started having men of average ability fight him two against one in his training, and he can beat the likes of Dornar Coalweir and Vithol Haerbur in single combat more often than not." The Coalweirs are minor landed knights sworn to your mother's family, the Darfields, and Sir Dornar is a competent fighter, though no match against Northan. Vithol Haerbur is a name that you recognize in passing as having fought alongside Northan in a handful of battles in the Second Galbror War, though you wouldn't be able to pick his face out of a crowd.

[Duck14]

Alfred

“Alright! Artie get on the sails. You may not be an engineer but you’re good at following the wind. I’ll hop on the rudder. There’s no hope of fixing this thing in this blasted weather.” I patted him on the back and crept toward the rudder. We’d already been without a proper steering mechanism for sometime now, we couldn’t waste anymore time.

[Leggo]

Jonos

My men can take the gate by themselves. I want to link up with my personal forces who are no doubt somewhere along the weaker sectors of the walls. I’d like to see if they’ve began an assault or not. It’ll be a good evaluation of Wallace’s intuition, if he can act on his own thought and not wait to be chaperoned by me.

[Bannanachair]

@ Alfred: Artie nods, and then begins untying what remains of his ropes so that he can move more freely. The waves are only getting stronger, however, and you have a hard time remaining stable and standing, not to mention moving towards the rudder to operate manually in this storm.

@ Jonos: You see that your men are attacking along part of the wall that looks like it would have been less occupied a while ago. Redscar's men and the Talsworth men are nowhere to be seen, but it's likely that they're attacking along different parts of the wall as well.

[Leggo]

Jonos

I spur Solmyr in the direction of my troops. I want to find Wallace and receive a status report. I’m sure they’ve made some progress, and I want to see where I can be of most use while we’re storming. Perhaps if Wallace has it covered, I’ll fly to the palace and try to find that bastard Count of Norbury.

[Tikobe]

Othan

"Well, it's pleasing to hear that he doesn't take after me when it comes to swordsmanship and the likes," I sigh as I look to a servant to ask for my breakfast.

I recall when I had to take on two men at once. Never had it been a particularly pleasing experience. I think I won maybe once and that was because one of my opponents had failed to sleep the previous night and I used that against him. Now that I think of it that might be called foul play. Hadn't occurred to me at the time.

[Bannanachair]

@ Jonos: You arrive to see Wallace not on the front lines, but riding between his centre and flanks giving orders to subcommanders under him. "Your majesty, it's good to see you," Wallace says, shouting over the thunder. "Our men have very nearly taken the wall here. Barely more than seventy deaths out of the thousand men under my command. Your arrival has actually been a great boon, as it's distracted their archers and made the job easier for those climbing ladders. I wouldn't go into the palace single-handedly, however - Darmen var Norbury won't be alone, and you don't want to be outnumbered in that fight."

@ Othan: "He does take after you in regards to strategy, though - I don't think I've won a game of Thaira against him in over two years, which admittedly isn't saying that much. The only non-physical endeavour that I'm still better than him at would have to be languages, but that's not altogether surprising - I learned twice as many as you did, after all." The servant brings you the same meal as what your brother had been eating, which is scrambled heron's eggs with some ham and hard cheese.

[Duck14]

Alfred

I pushed through, clenching anything I could to keep myself stead. I had to get there. Damn, my old body. If I was a young lad this would be ten times easier but no I had to be an old sod. Shut up, Alfred. I reach the rudder and hope beyond hope that it worked. Hopefully Artie had reached the sails, we needed to work in tandem here.

[Tikobe]

(Oh boy, Thander Marthus is coming out to be what would happen if Northan and Othan were thrown into a pot and mixed together. Better watch out! (Yes, I'm just joking around))

Othan

"That's good to know. He'll be a great heir soon."

Hmm, Thander Marthus is coming out to be well-rounded. Perhaps I should ask Kallian to show him how to work the political world one of these days. That's not something I was very good with myself, not to mention my reputation makes it more than just a tad bit difficult to appeal to others. I also hope Arnfried comes out to be just as promising.

I work on finishing my breakfast until Northan heads out to the courtyard for the day's training, an action to which I'll respond by following him there.

[Bannanachair]

@ Alfred: After what feels like an eternity of trying, you at last manage to make it to the rudder. There were strikes of lightning and thunder all around you, trying to fight you back, and the wind howled at you, trying to throw you off. You still managed to find the fortitude and constitution to make your way to the rudder, but it was hard to move it yourself. Over the next several hours that felt like several years, you and Artie managed to successfully steer the ship, despite it recieving two more strikes of lightning and taking more damage from the waves.

Eventually the storm became less intense, and you could hear Artie's voice calling out at you. "Captain, we're going to steer in the starboard direction to avoid a rock!" Was the first thing that you could hear from him after all those hours, and he was very shocked when you replied as well. Apparently he had called out what he was doing to you throughout the whole storm, it was just that the storm was too loud for you to hear. After a while of that some other members of your crew came out to relieve Artie and you of your duties.

(I think that that might be the first timeskip that I've ever written.)

@ Othan: "Let's hope that he won't be the heir soon, though," Northan said.

It takes you maybe ten minutes to finish your breakfast with some intermittent conversation about the specifics of your son's training: How good he is at archery (a skill that he inherited from you, unfortunately), his skill with riding horses (thankfully much more akin to Northan's), his knowledge of information about the various feudal lords of Orevod and especially Mallowater and major feudal lords in Eredal, Elusia, Vrelon, Argolon and Traketus and his learning in matters of history, both recent and ancient.

As you and Northan arrive in the courtyard, you find that the only ones there are a small handful of knights. Taran Gulyard, with a sword and a scabbard that look newly-purchased, was there, alongside Dennick Talverton, Orris Ludall, Vithol Haerbur, Darmen Dinton, Chester Pelsley and three others who you didn't recognize.

"Bode, it's good to see you here!" Northan said upon seeing one of the ones you don't recognize. "I was afraid that I'd manage to just miss you. Othan, this is my friend Boderick Craentitch, a master with the lance. Bode, this is my brother Othan, the famous tactician."