Solo Noose To See You!

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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.

Noose To See You!

Postby Konrad Venger on February 5th, 2016, 11:45 pm

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18th Bell - 84th Day of Spring, 515AV - Kabrin Road, North of the Pyrite Watchtower, Sea of Grass


Stash hadn't seen much emotion on Venger's face during the seventy-odd days they'd been riding together. Not much that was positive, anyway. He'd seen anger and disgust and hatred; feral enjoyment while spilling blood. But most of the time his face had been frozen in a stoic, indifferent mask, like a gargoyle worked over by a kid with a hammer years before.

"Fuck me runnin'..."

That evening, though, was the first time he had seen awe.

Stash nearly broke his neck, snapping it over in surprise. He was expecting the second coming of Rhysol or a flood or a plague of eldritch monsters, to have prompted such a stunned, hushed reaction. But all he could see aside from the endless plains and the Suvan on their right was the tower.

Which was exactly where Konrad was staring.

"Oh. Never seen onea' those before?"

Konrad shook his head dumbly and kept watching, afraid to tear his eyes away for even a moment. The tower rose and rose, taller than most he'd seen in Sunberth, maybe all of them. The archway built alongside it, almost huddling against it for protection, flickered and danced with wyrd and power he couldn't begin to understand. But capping it all, shining like a second Syna above all, was the capstone.

Blue as frost in dawn light. Blue like emeralds and sapphires, though Konrad had never seen them shine so. There was precious little light to reflect of it, no flame under it, nothing but the stone fingers holding it in place, and yet it blazed and danced and cast its glare over them all.

Konrad shook his head again. It was the closest he could come to expressing appreciation. Stash snorted softly and didn't spare the old heap-o-rocks a second look. He'd been the same, years before, working the Kabrin, gawping at the towers and the multicolored gems with the other lads seeking fortune and coin. But he'd seen so many - or the same ones so many times - that now he just noted the color, and thus the season, and moved on.

A mage's tower wouldn't get him where he was going; sturdy wheels and well-fed animals would.

"Whoooooooa!"

Fangor was likewise unimpressed. All he saw was a good place to bed down for the night, bathed in a solid light that would keep the bandits and Glassbeaks and those fucking wing'd wolves away. Konrad was snapped out of his moment by the call he'd become used to, a rough, monosyllabic yell that seemed to stretch and echo until every wagon, cart, pack mule and rider had stopped.

He stood up in his seat next to Stash and the two men watched Fangor stand... peer around... and point to some place off the road. Konrad followed his hand and silently agreed. Flat, trodden down, right next to the sea and still within the light of the tower.

"Geddon, girls."

Stash whipped and shucked his oxen into obedience, following the flow of the carts as they trundled over to the space Fangor had pointed to. Konrad watched from his seat, bounced around so hard he had to hold on once they were off the Kabrin, but looking close enough to see the same pattern.

Front wagons down to the center, make up the left side of the circle... the rest make up the right.

It was a slow and clumsy ballet, but he could see it unfolding. The straight line of animals and wooden conveyances fractures apart into dozens of splinters, all of them falling sideways into the grass and steppe. They start to come together again, with much roaring and clanking and bleating... into a circle. A rough perimeter with the slave carts on one side, and the alcohol carts on the other. Closest to the water, furthest from the road, are the supply wagons, and Konrad leaps down and walks swiftly over to them as soon as Stash stops their cart.

The cart driver sneers at his back and mutters under his breath as he finds his feed bags. "Yeah, thanks for the help, arsehole..."

Konrad had a simple plan. Get their packs from the cart, Three Eyes and him, find a spot for the fire, get it going, then get the tent up. Just as usual, that was his routine, his portion of their duties in the wilderness. Fire, shelter, food and water. An easily split.

But as he hefted their packs off the cart and tossed Three Eyes' over as the pudgy ganger met up with him, he caught a glimmer of movement vanishing behind the carts. He thought he'd made it clear what happened to runaways, but anything was possible, and slaves running was not the only thing it could be...

"Where you goin'?"

"Checkin' somethin',"
he said over his shoulder, waving Three Eyes away as he walked to the perimeter. "Find us a spot."

Three Eyes just shrugged and kept his opinions in his own skull. It didn't suit to push Konrad; the man didn't have much of a threshold for that, especially when he didn't really need you. So he sauntered off and looked for a place that wouldn't turn out to be a fucking ant colony or termite mound when they set the tent up.

Konrad kept moving, but slowly, carefully. He tried to place his feet on wet grass, mud, bare dirt, anywhere that would snap or crinkle. He heard voices as he crept behind one of the wagons... the sound of cloth and metal snipping, things being hammered into the ground...

Doesn't sound like thieves. Or runners.

He turned the corner and two pairs of bright, vaguely irritated eyes snapped to him instantly.

Not slaves. Not bandits.

The Drykas.

||Common||Thoughts||Pavi||Fratava||Myrian||Other's Speaking||
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Note: As of Fall 517AV, Konrad is known only as "Hansel" in Endrykas
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Noose To See You!

Postby Konrad Venger on February 7th, 2016, 5:34 pm

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Konrad found out that using "the" was important, when it came to them. If they were riding the Kabrin and the cry went out for "Drykas!", everyone from the carters to the sellswords to the one grumbling cook they hired would know what they meant. Though the tone would probably be enough.

But "the Drykas" would always refer to the pair of long-haired and well-inked men, rarely down from their horses and never without their short bows. They were Fangor's scouts and best archers both, as well as his hunters and trappers. Konrad wondered with avarice how much they were getting paid for all their duties, knowing that they were worth it.

He'd seen them, without a bead of sweat on their brows, calmly sending flurries of arrows into the Denvali ambush outside Zeltiva. Nocking, drawing, aiming, loosing; all four movements so smooth and fast they were as one, and every time, they hit their mark, he was sure of it.

They'd vanish for bells into the grass or the steppe or the woods, coming back with carcasses swinging from between a pole they held, or tied to their belts, limp parcels of flesh and fur to be skinned and served up.

Now they looked up at him from their work, and Konrad looked between them as they studied him.

It was a noose. He'd seen enough hangings to know that. Made of thin wire, so much that only the fading, glinting light even showed him its shape, it was a loop and a knot leading to a stake shoved into the ground a little further away. One Drykas had been hammering the stake, the other carefully, painstakingly positioning the wire in front of...

What, exactly?

"Why're you putting it there?"

The two hunters looked at each other for a moment, expressions guileless in their bemusement. The Elder spoke from his knees, still holding the wire snare.

"Why you care?"

Konrad had to take some time to answer that. Why did he care? Why did he ask? He'd seen the Drykas skulking around before, doing whatever it was they did, always quiet, always efficient. He hadn't much cared the What or How, just that they Did, and the result was meat for their fires. But after scores of days on the road, it was tarting to needle Konrad a tad.

They could survive out here for seasons. Maybe years. But you? Away from a city, from taverns and alleys and stores, you're helpless.

Konrad couldn't allow that to stand.

"Like t'know how you do it."

"Do what?"

"Live out here."


Oh, that went down well. The Younger cracked up first, and the Elder's lips stretched and curled into a smile, which for that stoic old sod was practically a belly-laugh. He was being mocked. Ridiculed for presuming that a city boy like him could ever attempt to-

"You mean survive out here?" The Younger snorted, accent and language smoother and more familiar than the old man's. Cousin, father, brother, lover, friend, Konrad didn't know what they were. But they were never apart. "Just let us go 'bout our work, friend. We'll do what we're paid to, and you'll get paid."

"Don't doubt it,"
Konrad said, taking a few steps closer and shrugging. "Still like to know, anyway. You ain't gonna be around forever."

The Younger opened his mouth and a stream of Pavi from the Elder cut him off. The old man didn't look up from his work, just kept his gnarled fingers on the noose, touching it up here and there, adjusting it, smoothing down where it would rest just above the ground.

Konrad didn't speak horse, but he got the idea: if he wants to watch, let him. Long as he doesn't get in the way. Other than that, we're wasting time.

"Fine," the Younger said with a slight sigh, getting back down into a squat. "See this? S'what's called a 'snare'."

"Like a noose?"

"Kinda, but for animals. Rabbits, pack rats, gophers, anything little and furry that wanders around."
He pointed at the snare and Konrad saw how it wasn't laying on the ground, like it would catch some animal's claw or foot, but it was vertical, like a circular wire gate through the grass. "See how it's up like that?"

"Yeah?"

"Know why?"


Konrad squinted and frowned and stared... and then he went back to the noose idea. Only one thing seemed to make sense.

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"Cuz that's where it's head'll go?"

"Bravo,"
the Younger said, in a tone so dry you could have used it for kindling. "They come running down here, along this trail-"

"'Trail'?"

"Yeah, you see these?"
Konrad peered closer and saw the little indents in the ground. Some deep, some shallow; some wide, some narrow; all of them clawed and tiny, the passing of innumerable small creatures. "Tracks. Shows that they go this way. For food or for shelter or for..."

The Younger Drykas looked up and saw the city boy's eyes start to glaze over. Gods, what was he, a sodding teacher now? He had work to do! But he still wanted to get teh point across. Seriously, this was just basic survival. Surely the Sunberthian could grasp that?!

"Fine... you know how the boss knows where to bed the caravan down for the night?"

"Yeah, looks for good ground."

"What's 'good' ground?"


Konrad barely needed to think about that one: he'd seen it enough. Every day, in fact. "Grass eaten down, trampled down by animals n' carts... all the ol' fires with ashes an' shyke."

"Exactly. That's how Fangor knows. By lookin'. This is how we know. By lookin', and lookin' close, for signs of passin'. You getin' it?"

"Yeah."


The Drykas was hardly convinced, but by that time the Elder had gotten back up, satisfied with his work. The snare was tight and ready, the little sticks on the side keeping it upright. The Younger rubbed his scruffy jaw and decided to move on. They had much to do and barely a bell to do it in.

"Al'right," he said, nodding further into the Sea of Grass. "Y'wanna learn? You follow me? But keep quiet an' pay attention."

Konrad nodded like the schoolboy he'd never been, eager to learn. He was willing to take a few barbs for his troubles, even if it was from the horse-fuckers. The Younger led him away, holding a hand in the air like some old sensei.

"Lesson One: it ain't the traps, it's where you put 'em. You know where to place 'em, half your job's done. Lesson Two," he said, pulling out and shaking a little bag of rustling feed. "Best hunters don't go hunting; they get the animals to come to them..."

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Note: As of Fall 517AV, Konrad is known only as "Hansel" in Endrykas
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Konrad Venger
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Noose To See You!

Postby Konrad Venger on February 7th, 2016, 6:35 pm

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Konrad honestly had no idea there was so much wire involved in making traps. Even the simple one the Younger had showed him seemed like a complex contraption encompassing string and cord. It was supposed to flatten prey with a rock, yet it seemed just as capable of tying it up in a tick!

"Careful with that stick."

Konrad just nodded, not taking his focus off the stick propping up the large, flat rock the bait was going to be under. His fingers were still throbbing from where the trigger had come loose too early and dropped the whole lot on them. Well, some of them. Konrad could be quick when he wanted to be.

Just not quick enough, he thought with a mental grumble, sucking at a skinned knuckle.

The Younger didn't pay much more attenton to him after showing him what to do, and he preferred it that way. The Drykas wouldn't be hovering over his shoulder after their contract with Fangor was done. Konrad needed to know how to do this alone.

Although a torch wouldn't have hurt.

Syna was fading fast and Konrad had to squint to see what he was doing; especially with the shadow of the rock making the bait and trigger hard to find. It was all about the sensitivity. Too little and anything could set it off; too much and the prey would take the bait and waltz off without ever being in danger. It was not quick or easy process.

And yet, they were still losing the light.

"Finished yet?"

"Yeah... almost..."


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He bit down on his lip and speared a little chunk of cornmeal onto the bait stick. Then he made sure the wire around the stick was leading to what the Younger insisted on called "the whip": a supple, taut limb held in place by a couple of pounded in stakes. Konrad traced his fingers down the wire, from the stick to the limb... then ghosted them up the second wire, leading to the larger stick propping up the rock.

He got up. Very slowly. Carefully. Hands at his sides as if the mere hint of them close to the trap would set it off. He backed away like the thing was leveling a crossbow at him and found the Younger standing next to him, annoyingly calm and nonchalant.

"S'called a 'deadfall'," the Drykas said around a mouthful of water, offering Konrad a swig. "Not hard t'see how it works, right?"

"Prey comes over, smellin' the food. Take a few bites, sets off the trigger. Whip cracks, pulls the stick loose and-"

"Splat!"
The Drykas finished with a chuckle, casting his eyes over more choice spots. "Mine are done, so... time to wonder about feathered, not furry."

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Note: As of Fall 517AV, Konrad is known only as "Hansel" in Endrykas
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Konrad Venger
Long is The Way and Hard
 
Posts: 923
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Joined roleplay: November 23rd, 2015, 4:05 pm
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Noose To See You!

Postby Konrad Venger on February 7th, 2016, 7:22 pm

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Konrad knew better than to even try to set the big one by himself. Wires and snares were one thing, but suddenly the Younger was wielding sticks with cords and fenceposts with holes and he just watched.

The watching helped, though. It was ingenious and clever, these traps and tricks, but the more Konrad watched, the more he realized how simple most of them were. Logical. Once you worked back from the desired result - a nice, plump birdie helpless at the end of a snare - you had to figure out how to get it there.

Unfortunately, there were infinite paths to take. Fortunately, he was observing someone who'd been doing this a long time.

"Paying attention?"

Konrad grunted in response and kept doing just that. The Younger turned back to the pole he'd hammered into the ground, with a hole carved through it near the top. A smaller stick was poking out of it, a snare laying across it... and the other end of that wire snaking through the hole, the pole... and coming down to a fat rock hanging from the other side.

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The wire there was taut; the snare was not. Only the weight of the stick kept the rock from falling and the snare from pulling closed.

"See how it works?"

Konrad stepped forwards, arms crossed, face more lined and darker than usual thanks to the failing light. Beyond them both, back in the campsite, an orange glow was rising, mingling with the blue from the tower's stone, casting competing auras around everything. But here, there was dusk and twilight... though not enough for Konrad not to see the trap clear.

"Bird lands on the twig-" he pointed to the stick with the snare on it, lodged expertly in the hole "-and when it does, the weight pulls the stick loose, drops the rock-"

"Shhhk!"


The Drykas laughed and made a quick, snatching gesture, like he was plucking the bird straight from the air. Konrad smiled for the sake of the thing; better to let the man think the city-dweller appreciated him, was grateful to him, owed him in some way. He knew from experience how... malleable, people became, once they thought they held power over you.

"Anything else?"

"Nah. Between me and the old man, we've got a score of traps set. Now we just gotta wait."

"How long?"

"Until morning."

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Note: As of Fall 517AV, Konrad is known only as "Hansel" in Endrykas
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Konrad Venger
Long is The Way and Hard
 
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Noose To See You!

Postby Konrad Venger on February 7th, 2016, 7:53 pm

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"Shyke."

"Don't take it so hard. Everyone fucks up the first time."

"Did you?"

"... I'm not talking about me."


Konrad gritted his teeth and did his best to ignore the smirk hiding behind the Drykas' words. In the pale light of morning, they'd gone down to check the traps and it was a mixed bag. This, he'd been told with a fatalistic shrug from the Elder, wasn't unusual. Twenty traps, you'd get maybe a dozen tripped and only half of those with anything tasty inside them.

"Lesson Three," the Younger had said when they'd met up, Syna still only just peeking over the Suvan Sea, but the glow of Pyrite Tower undiminished. "A good hunter accepts that sometimes, he loses his prey. A good trapper accepts that his traps won't always work."

Fuck that shit.

Konrad knew it was hardly the most mature or helpful reaction, but fuck it, this was just petching embarrassing. He kicked at the rock, his rock, the deadfall he'd set up that had caught... a clutch of feathers that he snatched up from the edge of the fallen stone.

Three Eyes sauntered over and inspected the contraption that he was clueless about. He scratched one of his man chins and glanced at the odd sight of Konrad the Cutter, glaring at a handful of feathers, with a Drykas offering him condolences.

"First try, huh?"

"He'll get better."

"I can hear you both!"

"We know."


Konrad got back to his feet with a disgusted huff. The wire snare he'd placed was no better. It hadn't even been touched, nary a leaf disturbed. But this one? Something had been there. Something small and feathered and too quick for his oh-so-clever trap.

Wagons creaked and groaned into action around them. As there was a pattern and ballet to getting from the road to the camp, so there was for the reverse. Three Eyes was there to get him moving, he knew, and Konrad looked with stark jealousy at the brace of squirrels and rabbits the Elder had weighing down the pole across his shoulder.

The old man just shrugged.

"Been doing this forty years. What you expect?"

Good point.

"Aw'right," he said with a grunt and a disgusted toss of the feather onto the ground, into the wind, sending them dancing up into the blue glow and the blue sky. "Next time."

||Common||Thoughts||Pavi||Fratava||Myrian||Other's Speaking||
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Note: As of Fall 517AV, Konrad is known only as "Hansel" in Endrykas
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Konrad Venger
Long is The Way and Hard
 
Posts: 923
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Joined roleplay: November 23rd, 2015, 4:05 pm
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Noose To See You!

Postby Jasmine Stormblood on March 2nd, 2016, 5:04 am

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Let me know if I missed anything!

XP-

Observation: 3 XP
Wilderness Survival: 2 XP
Trapping: 2 XP
Socialization: 2 XP
Endurance: 1 XP

Lores-

Snare: used for small game
Snare: bird snares require a post
Trapping: called a 'deadfall'
Trapping: rock used to flatten prey
A good trapper accepts his traps wont always work
Konrad: a determined man


The Clan is Strength.
The Clan is Life.
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Jasmine Stormblood
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