Solo Ravok: The Journey Continues (Part 2)

Maria continues her journey to Ravok

(This is a thread from Mizahar's fantasy role playing forums. Why don't you register today? This message is not shown when you are logged in. Come roleplay with us, it's fun!)

The Wilderness of Cyphrus is an endless sea of tall grass that rolls just like the oceans themselves. Geysers kiss the sky with their steamy breath, and mysterious craters create microworlds all their own. But above all danger lives here in the tall grass in the form of fierce wild creatures; elegant serpents that swim through the land like whales through the ocean and fierce packs of glassbeaks that hunt in packs which are only kept at bay by fires. Traverse it carefully, with a guide if possible, for those that venture alone endanger themselves in countless ways.

Ravok: The Journey Continues (Part 2)

Postby Maria Talwa on July 7th, 2017, 10:11 pm

Image
17, Summer, 517

With the top of her armor removed, Maria sat in the back of a wagon after the caravan had stopped for a second time. With only a tank top style shirt to cover her chest, Vecka, an older gray haired woman in a blue robe inspected the arrow wound received while fleeing from the raiders. The woman was old enough that her fingers were gnarled, and now most of the actual work was done by an apprentice under her supervision. That turned out to be a young woman with long blond hair by the name of Dora.

“You're lucky the barbs didn't penetrate young woman,” Vecka said. “Otherwise we'd have to surgically remove it... Dora.” The young woman knelt down behind Maria when a small medical bag, and began to look the wound over. Dora placed a hand on her back causing the skin to move, and in response Maria winced slightly, but didn't move. Instead she allowed the work to continue without complaint.

“The wound is clean, no signs of infection, but it is deep enough to require a few stitches,” Dora said.

“Correct,” Vecka said. The next step saw Dora remove a small bottle of cream and apply it to the area around the wound. Almost immediately Maria could feel the pain fading, some sort of deadening salve no doubt. Even though the wound was clean, Dora used another salve to disinfect it, just to make sure. When it came time to stitch the wound, the feel of the needle tugging at skin was a familiar sensation to Maria, but for once it was done without pain. When Dora was finished, she gave Maria two small hand mirrors in order to get a look at the wound, which she did.

Maria's only reply was and approving nod before the mirrors were returned, the stitching was done well enough that the wound would no doubt leave only a minor scar. The next part of the process was dressing the wound, and that consisted of having a small piece of cloth placed over the wound, with a much larger pieced wound around Maria's lower abdomen to hold it in place.

“Thank you,” Maria said. In the process of placing the top of the armor back on, one of the guard's she'd been on duty with last night walked up to back of the wagon.

“Goreth wants to see us as soon as your wound in bandaged,” the man said. After securing the straps, Maria nodded to Vecka and Dora, then stepped off the back of the wagon and followed the guard. Considering what happened last night, this could be either good or bad, though she had a feeling it would be the latter rather than the former. Walking across the camp she could see the other three guards standing rigidly with Goreth pacing back and forth in front of them, that wasn't a good sign in Maria's mind. They both took their place in line, with Maria at the very end, and she stood at attention as well, waiting for Goreth to cut loose on all five of them regarding Togar.

Word Count: 521
Last edited by Maria Talwa on July 7th, 2017, 10:13 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Maria Talwa
Little Miss Vicious
 
Posts: 104
Words: 116966
Joined roleplay: February 28th, 2016, 7:30 am
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets

Ravok: The Journey Continues (Part 2)

Postby Maria Talwa on July 7th, 2017, 10:12 pm

Image

“The duty of those who guard the caravan is to not only protect everyone from danger, but also to ensure that no harm comes to them,” Goreth said. “You allowed Togar, my grandson, to wander out of camp and into the woods with who knows what dangers might have awaited him there.” As Goreth spoke, things were shaping up as badly as Maria thought they might, but at the same time she also acknowledged that he was right. All five of them dropped the ball and allowed a little boy to wander out of camp. Rather than trying to point fingers of assign blame, she mentally thought about ways to possibly stop this from happening in the future.

“You're lucky that nothing did happen to him, otherwise I'd have all your jobs,” Goreth said. “Under normal circumstances I'd dock all of you three days pay for something like this. It's only because Maria helped us to avoid a raid on the caravan that I'm not. However, this is not an incident that I can simply overlook. So, for that reason, instead of docking your pay, the lot of you will be assigned double shifts for today. Look on the bright side, if you manage to make it through today without incident, you might still get some time off. The game in the area is enough we've decided to take an extra day tomorrow for both fishing and hunting. Now get to it!”

In her own mind, Maria thought the five of them got off lucky all things considered, as it could have turned out a lot worse. Once again on sentinel duty, she watched both the inside and outside of the camp to make sure that no harm came to anyone. As everyone else enjoyed their day off, the other four guards seemed to be a bit crestfallen, while Maria didn't particularly care one way or the other. She'd never been big on just goofing off anyway. Working a double shift wasn't her idea of fun, but it was better than sitting around and doing nothing at all.

The day passed slowly, and Maria kept up a steady pace, but everything was normal until the middle of the afternoon. While looking away from the camp, she heard a sharp whistle. Looking in that direction she saw one of the guards pointing to Togar who had run past him waving a stick. The child seemed to be lost in his own imagination, waving the stick around like a sword, so Maria walked toward him.

“And where exactly are we off to?” Maria said, walking up to Togar. The little boy was a bit chubby for his age, with a head topped by scruffy blond hair, and clothing soiled with dirt.

“I'm beating up bandits and protecting the camp,” Togar said.

“I see, well, don't you think you should check the camp itself to make sure no bandits snuck in?” Maria said.

“Camp's boring,” Togar said. When the boy tried to run past Maria, she grabbed the back of his shirt.

“You need to go back to camp Togar,” Maria said.

“Let go, you're not my mom,” Togar said. “You can't tell me what to do.” The child started to kick, flail, and throw an all around temper tantrum when Maria tucked him under an arm and walked back toward camp. With the child screaming and crying the whole way she walked up to Goreth and was in the center of the camp, talking with some of the older members.

Word Count: 588
Maria Talwa
Little Miss Vicious
 
Posts: 104
Words: 116966
Joined roleplay: February 28th, 2016, 7:30 am
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets

Ravok: The Journey Continues (Part 2)

Postby Maria Talwa on July 7th, 2017, 10:14 pm

Image

“Goreth, I found some- GAH!” Maria's sentence was cut short as Togar's flailing saw him slam a knee into the arrow wound on her back and drop the woman to knee from the shooting pain it sent up her side. For his part Togar hit the ground and stuck his tongue out at Maria. Letting out a low growl, it was taking about everything she had not to wrap the child's face around the side of his head with a knuckle sandwich.

“Not so tough after all are you?” Togar said. As the child was about to run off once more, he was snatched off the ground by Goreth, who held him up by the back of the shirt. Taking a seat on a nearby log, he pulled the child pants down and proceeded to redden his backside in front of the whole camp.

“That's for leaving camp when you've been told repeatedly not to,” Goreth said. Following that admonishment Togar received a second spanking just as hard as the first, and Maria was glad to see the ill-mannered child get disciplined. “And that's for hitting Maria. Go find your mother right now, and if you leave this camp again, god's help me, I'll make this spanking look like fun.”

Now holding the seat of his pants and crying, Togar did as he was told and ran off to find his mother. With that matter taken care of, Goreth walked over to Maria, who was standing by this point, but still in a considerable amount of pain.

“Are you alright?” Goreth said.

“I'll live,” Maria said.

“You might want to go see Vecka,” Goreth said, nodding to Maria's side. Upon looking down she could see a small trickle of blood running down the side of her armor.

“Lovely,” Maria said.

“Thank you for keeping an eye on him,” Goreth said. Maria's reply came in the form of a small nod, but in truth she wanted to whip Togar herself... with the broadside of a sword. Not entirely sure what happened, she went back to the cart where Vecka normally stayed, and found the old woman asleep in the back. It looked as though she'd sat down to rest and simply dozed off.

“Good grief, what happened?” Dora said. The voice turned Maria around to see Vecka's apprentice standing a short distance away, looking down at the blood on the armor.

“I was hauling Togar back to camp and he kneed me in back,” Maria said.

“Little brat, not that you heard that from me,” Dora said. “Have a seat in the back and I'll look at the stitches.” Glad that she wasn't the only one who considered Togar to be a brat, Maria dropped the tailgate of the wagon and took a seat on the back. Once again she removed the top of the armor, and when Dora climbed into the back to take a look, she made a small hissing sound.

“What's wrong?” Maria said.

“That knee tore one of the stitches,” Dora said. “I'll have to resew it, but don't worry, I'll apply more pain ointment.”

Word Count: 518
Maria Talwa
Little Miss Vicious
 
Posts: 104
Words: 116966
Joined roleplay: February 28th, 2016, 7:30 am
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets

Ravok: The Journey Continues (Part 2)

Postby Maria Talwa on July 7th, 2017, 10:17 pm

Image

With the wound restitched, once again numb, and armor cleaned, Maria returned to her duty as sentinel and was once again walking around the camp to make sure no ill came to anyone. It wasn't until later that day, that anymore excitement occurred. While on her patrol around the caravan, Maria spotted a lone figure walking toward them in the distance. Still some distance off, Maria whistled to get the attention of the other guards, then pointed to the man before she continued to walk around. As he got closer Maria could see the man was alone, pulling a small sled, and appeared to be headed right for them. It took nearly an hour for him to reach them, and by that time, Maria had stopped walking, instead standing directly in his path. The man was scruffy in appearance, but not dirty, and looked to be hunter who lived off the land.

“Who goes there?” Maria said.

“Name's Bothor, from Kenash,” Bothor said. “I hunt these parts. You wouldn't be a trade caravan by chance would you?”

“You wish to trade?” Maria said.

“The thought had crossed my mind,” Bothor said. Stepping aside he motioned to the sled which had several skins from various animals, smoked meats, and other items on it. Maria walked up and carefully inspected the sled to make sure there was nothing suspicious. While looking everything over, the smell of smoked and seasoned meat drifted up to Maria's nostrils, and she sniffed a few times.

“Is that... smoked sausage?” Maria said.

“Indeed it is young lady,” Bothor said. Walking closer he took some sausages out of a small barrel and held them up. “Pork sausage, smoked and seasoned with my own personal blend of herbs and spices, only 1 silver a link.”

Always one who enjoyed red meat, Maria took a silver out of her pocket, handed it to Bothor, and put one of the links into a belt pouch for later. Seeing nothing that might pose a threat of any sort, she allowed the man to continue on to the camp. Some time later Maria saw the man walking away from camp, his sled considerably lighter than when he entered. Once again she stopped Bothor as he was about leave.

“Are you by chance heading in that direction?” Maria said, pointing to where the caravan had come from.

“Possibly,” Bothor said.

“If you are, you'd best keep your wits about,” Maria said. “We had a run in with some bandits about a days ride from here.”

“Much obliged miss,” Bothor said. The man left without incident after that, and she again returned to patrolling the camp. Maria smirked to herself thinking this trip was turning out to be quite interesting. First bandits, now a hunter who prowled the land for game and profit. The next thing on the list that Maria was looking forward to was the guard's scheduled meal break. With a decent sized sausage link and a full water skin, the meal to come would be one of the better she'd had on this journey so far.

Word Count: 514
Maria Talwa
Little Miss Vicious
 
Posts: 104
Words: 116966
Joined roleplay: February 28th, 2016, 7:30 am
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets

Ravok: The Journey Continues (Part 2)

Postby Maria Talwa on July 7th, 2017, 10:18 pm

Image

Seated near the other guards during their assigned break, Maria was eating with the normal table manners she showed, which were none. While the others joked, talked, and ate, she remained silent and consumed the meal, including the sausage she'd brought from Bothor. After several bites Maria wished she'd bought another. The link was smoked and seasoned well enough to make it the best part of the meal. It would seem the luck was on Maria's side, as one of the guards had also bought a sausage link, but after cutting off a single piece and eating it, he made a rather disgusted face.

Maria cut a low whistle to get his attention, flipped a silver coin which he caught, then nodded to the sausage. It took a moment for everything to register, then the guard tossed her the link, which didn't last very long. About the only thing Maria didn't do while eating was chew with her mouth open. While most shifts only had one break, every four hours, being on double duty and working sixteen hours entitled them to three breaks. This one happened to be the last and with only four hours left to go, Maria was tired, but not about to start complaining like some of the others were.

As the group stood and prepared to relieve the guards on watch during their break, Maria started to think about he incident with Togar again, the first rather than the second. She always kept a close eye on what was going on, which meant that the child must have taken off in the opposite direction of her when leaving the camp. Never the less, she was still curious how the boy had slipped by everyone without being seen. There were always four guard at the cardinal directions to keep watch, and her moving around the camp at least 100 feet out.

Unlike most people who became less observant when they got tired, Maria tried to remain as alert as possible. Togar had already put one black mark on the work record, she didn't plan to let there be another if at all possible. The last break coincided with the evening meal, so a full stomach, combined with the fatigue of a double shift setting in, did make it difficult for her to stay wake. The rest of the evening passed without incident, and when she was relieved of duty, Maria slumped down slightly and let out a low sigh, more out of relief than anything else.

Full of food, suffering from sore feet, and ready for bed, it didn't take long for Maria to set up her little one-person tent and crawl inside. By this point in time she was used to the smell of the bug repellent that was applied each night, not that it made the substance smell any better. With the little container more than half empty she also made a mental note to pick up some more when she arrived in Kenash. The day finally ended with Maria passing out on her bedroll after stripping off the armor. At this point the heat wasn't even a concern, all she wanted to do was go to sleep.

Word Count: 533

Misc. :
-2 SM for food
Maria Talwa
Little Miss Vicious
 
Posts: 104
Words: 116966
Joined roleplay: February 28th, 2016, 7:30 am
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets

Ravok: The Journey Continues (Part 2)

Postby Shaqira on July 10th, 2017, 7:26 am

Image
G R A D E



xp

Endurance +2
Observation +3
Socialization +3
Persuasion +1
Investigation +1
Wilderness Survival, Plains +1


lores

Dora: Nana Vecka’s apprentice
Endurance: Sitting through stitches
Maria: Pragmatic problem-solver
Gareth: A stern father & leader
Persuasion: Encouraging a child to behave with make-believe
Togar: Bratty grandson of Gareth
When persuasion fails, force will do
Togar: Gets a spanking
Maria: Showing kindness to a stranger
Wilderness Survival: Pitching a tent


notes

I love the unexpected adventures you weave into Maria's job threads, great work!


  
User avatar
Shaqira
Player
 
Posts: 51
Words: 12197
Joined roleplay: March 28th, 2017, 8:42 am
Location: Riverfall
Race: Eypharian
Character sheet
Plotnotes


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests