Solo Swinging at shadows

(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!)

Syka is a new settlement of primarily humans on the east coast of Falyndar opposite of Riverfall on The Suvan Sea. [Syka Codex]

Moderator: Gossamer

Swinging at shadows

Postby Cleon on May 25th, 2022, 1:51 pm

Image
62nd of Spring, 522 AV

It was late afternoon when Cleon decided to start training. After his meeting with Uta it had been on his mind all night, and throughout today as he realized how little he knew about using the tools at his disposal. There was the machete, the bow, and the ax, all three of which he had hardly touched since procuring. He supposed he didn’t have much of a reason to, but he knew that would not be the case forever. Better that he become acquainted now, and not need it, then need it and not have the know how.

He decided to start with the machete since it was a form that he could wrap his head around. A long, fat knife basically. While not the most accurate description it helped put it into a context he could understand for getting a feel for the weapon. Its parts were intuitive as well. A handle for gripping, a shallow guard that he supposed was there to keep him from cutting himself, and of course the long, flat blade with a sharpened edge put on one side. That would be the side he would want to hit with probably.

Gripping it by the handle he slashed it through the air wildly in front of himself. He had chosen his ground well, a relatively empty patch of beach where anyone could see him long before they had to cross paths with him, and of course, he would see them. As he swung he got a feel for how the blade felt when it reached the end of its swing, how it felt in the muscles of his arm to pull the machete back up to swing again. At once he could tell that he was using muscles that he had never used before, or at least couldn’t remember using. Ones in the interior of his forearm and along the backside of his arm all the way up to the shoulder. It felt different then pounding out a rough shape with a chisel. More graceful perhaps.

While swinging he also got focused on how it affected his grip. How the handle moved in his fingers, how tightly did he need to hold it before it felt like it might slip out of his grasp. What did it feel like at each stage of the arch in his swing. In essence he was getting a feel of the balance of the blade though he didn’t know contextually what he was doing. He was just getting a sense of what was to come but he realized his understanding would remain incomplete until he actually struck a solid object.

Trees were the first thing that came to mind, but he quickly dismissed that idea because he didn’t want to cause such purposeless damage. Driftwood was much more preferable but not exactly on hand as far as he could tell looking along the beach for as far as he could see. He would comb the beach more thoroughly later, for now he would just have to do with getting a sense of the feel of each of his weapons.

WC - 520
User avatar
Cleon
Player
 
Posts: 366
Words: 492860
Joined roleplay: March 3rd, 2022, 4:50 am
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Medals: 1
Mizahar Grader (1)

Swinging at shadows

Postby Cleon on May 25th, 2022, 1:52 pm

Image

Drawing a circle in the sand with the tip of his machete, Cleon decided to make a game of it. As he made his swings, lunges and thrusts, he would try to remain in the circle. He hoped this would give him an idea of the movement behind every strike, which ended up being partially correct. As he swung the blade forwards, across, down, up, and side to side, he churned up the ground around him leaving little more than a semblance of the circle he had drawn before. He learned that it was hard to make attacks in the sand without committing your full weight into the strike which in turn made it hard to control his footwork and remain in the circle. His footwork was all over the place as well, and could best be described as purposefully falling several times. Especially when he made his lunges. It seemed like only a matter of time he would skid to a halt on his knees, and every step between when he first made the lunge to when he fell in the sand was just his body trying to avoid falling down. Almost as if it hadn’t accepted the forgone conclusion.

It was also fairly effort intensive, and in several chimes he had managed to work up quite a sweat to go along with the soreness in his arm. He decided to take a break, sticking his machete in the sand while he walked over to a palm tree to set his back against it. Having lain his things beside it earlier, he grabbed his waterskin and took a healthy pull from it while looking out at the bay. Although it was mildly warm, it was still more refreshing than nothing on his parched throat as he continued to pant until his breathing slowed down to something that approached normal. Setting aside the waterskin, he leaned his head back against the base of the palm tree, and took in a deep, steadying breath.

There was a lot more to using a weapon than he would have figured. It seemed that he needed to know how to control his body before he learned how to use the blade effectively, though when he thought about it effective was highly circumstantial. If he intended to just use it to cut through jungle foliage then he was doing great, if he had to defend himself, less so. One thing was for certain. If he was going to be in a fight, it better not be on the sand. Better that it take place on a flat piece of ground where he had a reasonable amount of control over his footwork. The suggestion made him chuckle. Only in Syka would such an idea come to him. Had it really changed him that much already, or was this his curse at work?

In Sunberth there was no such thing as certainty. Every tick was a gift that one didn’t get stabbed, enslaved, or beaten by a threat that came out of nowhere.

WC - 506
User avatar
Cleon
Player
 
Posts: 366
Words: 492860
Joined roleplay: March 3rd, 2022, 4:50 am
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Medals: 1
Mizahar Grader (1)

Swinging at shadows

Postby Cleon on May 25th, 2022, 1:53 pm

Image

Here though, there was still an element of that unpredictability that had been exacerbated by the curses. However there was also an element of stability in that he knew that there were people in Syka he could count on to have his back. It had been difficult to accept at first, but time and time again the Sykan’s themselves had surprised him with their kindness.

Sitting up, and then pulling himself to his feet, Cleon briefly stretched out before going to pick up his machete. This time he walked out into the surf and drew his circle in the wet packed sand, kicking off his shoes so he could feel the water brush across his toes. After a tick of thought, he also stripped off his shirt so he was just in a pair of trousers. It felt a lot more refreshing that way with a feather light breeze coming off the sea to wash over him. Having already slathered himself in the sun burn cream the redness of his skin didn’t even feel that bad.

Standing in the middle of the circle he swung again, concentrating on his footwork this time. As he swung forward in a tight arch, his right foot automatically took a step forward almost breaking the edge of the circle before Cleon pulled back from the strike. It had kept his body upright for the swing and prevented him from overbalancing. Still, the fact that he had done it subconsciously didn’t sit right with Cleon. He wanted to be in full control of his facilities, something he had been suffering a distinct lack of over the course of this season. In response he decided to lead with his footwork, following through with his blade.

For his first move, he wanted to keep his motions small and economical so he twisted around on the spot towards the left. As his feet were finding their positions he swung the machete through a lazy pass at about waist height. He repeated the process to his right, and went for a stronger swing though he had trouble coordinating his arm for the process. There was force behind it, but he managed to have little control over the direction of that force as he was focusing too intently on the placement of his feet. It was like he was barely holding onto the machete, his arm spinning it about like an inanimate object. There was even more to work on than he had realized as he learned that his reflexes simply weren’t there.

Unlike when he put a chisel to wood, there wasn’t any cooperation between his limbs. It felt like if he didn’t control them individually, they wouldn’t respond in a satisfactory way. That meant there would be little value in him trying to do so now until his body got used to generally working together to accomplish the task before he started working specifically on certain movements. This was definitely a lot more difficult than he initially gave it credit for.

WC - 503
User avatar
Cleon
Player
 
Posts: 366
Words: 492860
Joined roleplay: March 3rd, 2022, 4:50 am
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Medals: 1
Mizahar Grader (1)

Swinging at shadows

Postby Cleon on May 25th, 2022, 1:54 pm

Image

Swinging up the blade, he rested the flat of it against the top of his shoulder for a moment while he shifted his stance to be square with the bay that stretch in front of him.

Taking in a deep breath he tried to bring himself out of the constant hum of thoughts and down into the moment, pushing everything out but the sensations of the world around him. The fine, grainy wet sand that he curled his toes down into. The warm nip of the water as it washed across his feet obscuring parts of his circle and obliterating his footprints. The weight of the long piece of metal in his hand as it rested across his shoulder. All of this combined with a myriad of other sensations trickled over him before he took a step forward, and swung his blade in a downward arch.

Keeping his arm cocked he managed to prevent the long blade from burying itself into the sand passing just over it before it played out its momentum as it passed perpendicularly to him. Tightening his arm, he puled it back up cross wise before swinging it out wide before him. This time he tried halting the momentum as he was just halfway through the swing but it still carried through its arch. He tried it again with a backhand swing, and again ran into the same issue. It was hard to stop the momentum of the blade half way through its arch, but if he did it to early it would be like he hadn’t even swung at all. Too late, and he might as well just have carried through the swing.

He tried it again with a overhead slash, and this time he tried twisting aside his grip. It worked. Kinda. His momentum still had to go somewhere but he had changed the angle if only barely. It was a taxing maneuver with such a long, heavy blade and he had to wonder if it would be different with something lighter. The machete once it got moving was hard to stop unless it struck something. That was just a hunch, but a fairly educated one as it didn’t require a whole lot of thinking to figure out that would be the case. Still he didn’t have any experience feeling what it would be like to strike something, and he would need to remedy that if he was going to get any better. It was all fine and well to swing a blade, but if he wasn’t hitting anything then he knew that he would get an inaccurate picture of how he needed to train. At worst he might pick up certain habits that might make it harder on him when he actually started striking something. He couldn’t see how that would be now, but he could logically put together how that would be by comparing it to his own experiences with carpentry.

Having worked up a proper pant once again, he decided to take a little break before he went looking for driftwood, and retook his seat at the base of the palm. After laying his machete in the shade beside him, he took out the book in his bag, and opened it up to its first page.

WC - 545
User avatar
Cleon
Player
 
Posts: 366
Words: 492860
Joined roleplay: March 3rd, 2022, 4:50 am
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Medals: 1
Mizahar Grader (1)

Swinging at shadows

Postby Cleon on May 25th, 2022, 1:55 pm

Image

The Cinchona tree, appearance and uses

Underneath the title was depicted a tall, then tree with branches angled up like a cup. Its leaves were concentrated at the very top of the tree, and below that there was a colored in depiction of one bunch of these broad leaves with little pink flowers that ended in white tips. Beside that was a depiction of bark that had been stripped from the tree before a passage started underneath it.

Commonly known as the “fever tree”, the Cinchona’s special properties are concentrated in the bark. When ground into a fine powder and mixed with water, it creates a tonic known as Quinine that can be used to treat the severe shivers brought on by Malaria and Pneumonia because of its muscle relaxant properties. Extremely bitter, it is usually remedied by mixing it with sugar water or something equally sweet so the afflicted will not have a hard time ingesting the tonic.

Malaria is theorized to be carried by mosquitoes, a real and present threat in the jungle. This illness is characterized by one starting to feel light headed, with muscle pain, nausea, diarrhea, excessive sweating and difficulty breathing. Because of this, it is recommended that one keeps some Quinine on hand to treat these symptoms as they manifest so that they might return safely home.

Cleon shut the book, feeling suddenly itchy though he didn’t think he had any bites on him. He was glad now that he had bought that insect netting when he had to hang over their bed. Whatever that illness was, it sounded very painful and after that cough scare earlier in the season he didn’t want to see either of them get sick again. He had enough to deal with trying to adapt to his curse. Reading this also reminded him that he had yet to get a journal to catalog his findings as Uta requested yesterday. He would have to do so today before the day was out and the information in this passage disappeared forever. That was fine by him, he had done what he wanted to this afternoon, and he had a feeling that the hatchet would feel more or less the same. The bow on the other hand would require a bit more effort than he had in him at the moment as he didn’t know how to string it, much less fire an arrow at it or have a target for said arrow. There were a lot of things he needed to do before he continued his training, and perhaps he would look for a few suitable solutions while he was shopping in the Outpost.

First though he needed to retrieve a few mizas for the journey so he returned back to the Inn in short order. To his surprise there was a note waiting for him, it read simply “Thanks for not telling anyone” and holding it down was a small pouch that jingled when he picked it up. When poured out the contents, gold rimmed mizas spilled out across his desk forming a small hill of them before he stopped pouring. He then went about counting them each out carefully replacing them in the bag one by one before cinching the pouch shut. Then he had a seat in his chair while he tried to think of who and why someone had left him two hundred mizas on his table. Well, he was pretty sure of the who, but why that strange boy had decided to was another matter entirely, and the how was an equally perplexing question.

Folding up the note he replaced it carefully in his pocket before tying the pouch of mizas to his belt. He would ask those questions later. For now it was time to go to the Outpost.

+ 200 gm (Challenge reward)

WC - 639
User avatar
Cleon
Player
 
Posts: 366
Words: 492860
Joined roleplay: March 3rd, 2022, 4:50 am
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Medals: 1
Mizahar Grader (1)

Swinging at shadows

Postby Cleon on June 7th, 2022, 7:22 pm

Image





Grade Award!

Cleon:

Skills:

Botany: 1
Endurance: 2
Herbalism: 1
Logic: 1
Meditation: 1
Observation: 2
Planning: 1
Weapon (Machete) : 4
WS: 1





Lores:

Machete: How to practice swinging
Machete: How to grip
Observation: The balance of a machete
Machete: How it feels when swung
Machete: Developing a form & posture
Machete: Changing positions while swinging
Machete: Developing footwork
Machete: Coordinating strikes with movement
Meditation: Clearing ones mind
Botany: Cinchona Tree - Physical Appearance
Colloquialism: Cinchona Tree - Fever tree
Herbalism: Cinchona bark has medicinal uses
Herbalism: Grinding Cinchona bark makes Quinine powder
Herbalism: Quinine powder when mixed with water makes a tonic
Herbalism: Quinine tonic is a muscle relaxant
Herbalism: Quinine can be used to treat Malaria and Pneumonia
WS: Malaria is caused by mosquitoes
Medicine: Malaria - Symptoms & Causes
Luke: Gifted 200 gm

Feel free to pm me with questions or concerns about your grade, and don’t forget to edit your grade request! :)
User avatar
Cleon
Player
 
Posts: 366
Words: 492860
Joined roleplay: March 3rd, 2022, 4:50 am
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Medals: 1
Mizahar Grader (1)


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests