Solo Investigate, Extrapolate, Innovate, Demonstrate (Ouch!)

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Not found on any map, Endrykas is a large migrating tent city wherein the horseclans of Cyphrus gather to trade and exchange information. [Lore]

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Investigate, Extrapolate, Innovate, Demonstrate (Ouch!)

Postby Konrad Venger on August 15th, 2017, 6:24 pm

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12th Bell - 70th Day of Summer, 517AV - The Spit Fire


Nothing lasted forever, even if one carefully rationed his resources. Bait, scent, preservatives, they all needed to be replaced, and even things like snares became worn with time. He'd thought that, all things considered, the kit he'd bought almost a year ago... well, the fact it had been that long in the first place, told him he'd got good value out of it.

Yet here I am.

"Anything else for you?"

The Emerald Clan hunter watched as the scarred walahk from Pridesun perused the array of items he'd spent half a bell collecting. A length of rope, a spool of wire that could be fashioned into snares, a few vials that stank of rabbit and deer and vole and general musk... not to mention a smaller kit that could be used to preserve modest carcasses. The man scratched his jaw, now covered in a beard, and Brodann could see him wondering what he'd forgotten.

Hansel. That's what he was called, or called himself. Brodann was an old enough hand to sniff out a lie, even when he heard it third-hand. The man was clearly not some poor traveler lost out in the grass; he'd heard the stories, how he'd been found cut to ribbons, next to corpses of men and horses... or was it just one of each?

You never could trust the rumors. A few tellings, a little time, and they grew into their own creatures.

"What are those?"

His Pavi had much improved, at least. Brodann remembered when he'd first wandered into the Spit Fire, clueless as a stripling. He'd patiently talked him through what he'd need, if a hunter was what he wanted to be. Shyke, even Brodann would admit that he'd forgotten more about hunting, tracking, trapping, and surviving in the Sea of Grass than half his clan. He had the time, he was getting paid for his efforts... and besides, he never minded a chance to pass on knowledge.

"Thy're bracers." Konrad watched the old man dump a pair of gauntlets on the table, only they were thinner, more flexible, and made of leather... and seemed to have the straps on the wrong side. "Archers use them. Protects your arm from when the bow string snaps back."

Konrad grunted and subconsciously rubbed his arm, slapped and bit a few dozen times by string of his bow. Gods, why hadn't he thought to snag some of these before? He added another gold coin to the mizas he'd already piled on the table for his resupply, and Brodann nodded sagely.

"Aye, seems about right. Anythin' else?"

"No, I am-"


Something squealed outside the tent, a voice far removed from man and horse and cattle. Konrad turned out of instinct and saw a reptilian head the size of his torso swing by the tent flap. A long, red tongue lolled out and tasted the air, beady black eyes flickering about briefly... then he was mushed on again by its Drykas owner, putting one clawed foot in front of the other, sacks and baskets piled him on its back.

He'd seen them before. It wasn an Ixam, a species of massive lizard that called Cyphrus home, especially the Sea of Grass. Herds of the huge reptiles crossed the grasslands, no different in their habits to cattle and deer and bison. Only difference being, they were covered in thick, armored scales, like the kind ringing that one's neck. Despite their armor, the Drykas still captured young ones and domesticated them, or even more rarely, stole their eggs and raised them from hatching. As mounts they were tricky, and the Horse Lords would always prefer their equine mounts... but as beasts of burden, they were invaluable.

Konrad blinked, and he rubbed his wrist again. Noted the scales around the Ixam's neck like a noble's frill, only they were tighter together an flattened... but thick. Tough. He'd heard the Drykas talk about arrows and javelins clattering off them before.

A season ago, or more, he would have turned away, an interesting sight to be remembered, yes, but not dwelt on. But this was the present, and he had more knowledge... not to mention more abilities.

More ambition, too.

"Lad? Oi, you a'right, son?"

"Yes. I am."
He scooped up his goods and stuffed his bracers into the bag, too. Then he tipped a nod to the hunting master, and amazingly enough followed it with a quick grin. "Must go. Have to talk to man for lizard."

"You what?"


But there was no answer, for Konrad was already gone.

Receipt:Archer's Bracers: 1gm
Resupplying Hunter's/Trapper's Kit: 13gm
TOTAL: -14gm

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Note: As of Fall 517AV, Konrad is known only as "Hansel" in Endrykas
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Investigate, Extrapolate, Innovate, Demonstrate (Ouch!)

Postby Konrad Venger on August 25th, 2017, 1:48 am

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"You want to... feel my lizard?"

"I know it sounds strange."

"Oh, really?"


Konrad wasn't a man who felt much when it came to embarrassment. It was, after all, for people who felt self-conscious. Who worried about how they were perceived. He'd stopped caring about that decades ago, when the stares and whispers reached a tipping point that simply left him behind. People judged him the moment they saw him: everything else he said and did after that moment was unlikely to make a difference.

Then again, he was racking his brains and unable to remember a moment he'd made this kind of request.

The clutch of Drykas snickered at their elder's words, the man's face as wryly satirical as his words. Konrad's jaw worked silently for a moment and he resisted the urge to clear his throat. Instead he took off his hat and let Syna scrunch his face up into a squint.

"Is for wyrd. Djed. Magic. I know thing by touching thing. Remember it good. Want to make like scale on lizard, so-"

"Aye, I think I get what you're saying, friend,
" the Drykas said, arms as crossed and barrier-like as they'd been when Konrad first arrived. "Still haven't heard why I should care."

Ah, and here we go.

It hadn't exactly been difficult, tracking down a twenty-foot-long lizard loaded down with supplies. Konrad kept his distance and observed, drinking in as many details as he could about the beast... especially it's scales. He watched until they came to a pavilion, tents and rude enclosures for animals, easy to erect and even easier to take down. He tried to find some symbol that would tell him who they were, but aside from the Emerald Clan markings, there was nothing.

So he blew out a breath and squared his jaw and marched in. What else was there to do?

"How much you want?" He held up his hands as if begging forgiveness for offence. Drykas could be touchy when it came to money. "Or some other thing you want, yes? If not mizas, then I do thing for you. All I want is one bell. Maybe less."

Lawser didn't know what to make of the strange walahk, but he had heard of him before. Hansel, that was his name, and he was one of those Pridesun bastards. Lawser always told his clan to be careful of outsiders, and that bunch was as outside the Horse Lords as one could get. Even the Drykas among them were pariahs or the perennial outcasts that their people often threw up.

"Can't say I much like you Pridesuns," he said without any real rancor. Just a man stating facts, without fear or malice. "That bastard Jonas? Well, that's a nice way to describe him."

"I know."


That made Lawser blink, and Konrad stifled a grin. Sometimes these Horse Lords could be so simple-minded. Not stupid, necessarily, but simple. Deception was a rarity among them, even for their elders. Then again, they had little need for that trait. Their lives were hard and dependent on trusting each other, working with each other, sticking together against a hostile world and surrounding cultures that had no special love for them.

It often amused Konrad that him being honest with them was as productive as lying to other races.

"You know?"

"Yes. Was bastard. Was liar. Was glad when he died."
Now it was Konrad's turn to speak words that common sense dictated should have some emotion, only there was none. Speaking ill of the dead was not an issue for him, either. "Pridesun are better without him."

"But you followed him."

"He saved my life."


The truth, again. He saw surprise flicker over the older man's face, as he perused the scarred, hardened walahk in front of him, bedecked with weapons and eyes that were always cold even in the grip of Summer. A man like that, and capable of gratitude, even to a bad man.

Konrad smiled thinly. It always shocked people that he had some sense of honor to him. Even if it was only in that single sense. Well, more the fool them.

"Have not heard thing bad about me, no?" He shrugged, touching his scars with a finger. "I know you hear rumor. Hear story. Mean walahk, ugly walahk, look like monster. But have heard me in trouble? Heard me with Wardens after me? No. Not make trouble. Stay with my people. Stay alive."

"And practice your magic."

"Yes..."


Lawser's eyebrows shot up when the man held a hand, palm up, and green-black mist floated up from his palm. The walahk's eyes seemed to glaze over, as if he was dreaming while awake, and when he breathed out... the mist flared into flame, like a candle in the air between them.

"... practice many time."

"Not just Reimancy either, hmm?"

"No. Learn other thing. Learn to make skin into new thing. Learn from things I see."
He peered around the man, obviously running his eyes over the Ixam happily snacking on a bag of meal. "Not lie to you. Not see point. You have lizard, I have coin, or other thing you want. So make deal."

"Unless I don't want to make a deal."


Konrad's eyes turned to steel, smoked with blood and fire, for just a tick. Long enough for Lawser to get the inkling that whatever "Hansel" was in Endrykas, it was a far cry from what he'd been out in the world beyonf the Sea of Grass. But... the man was not lying. And he'd not heard any actual facts backing up the rumors about the man.

He's learning to hunt and ride, he spars with anyone that seeks him out, and spends his mornings trapping or practicing his magic. He doesn't seem to mean anyone any harm.

If we were back home, I'd have started cutting things off you by now.


Konrad's mind was somewhere else. A different place, a different time. Old instincts awoke and growled through his soul, aching to be cut loose. Who did this old fart think he was? Him or his brats lounging behind him, shooting him mean stares? He could have butchered all four of them in ticks, then did what he hell he wanted with the damn lizard. His fingers flexed and gravitated without his will towards his sword-

No. No, not here. Not this place.

He was not in Sunberth. He was in Endrykas. He'd not get a hundred paces before these Horse Lords took him down, and even if he did, would he outrun the Wardens? He'd seen them in the field before, tracking and running down prey with the efficiency of mounted golems. He'd not get far, and whatever he would gain was not worth dying out in the endless grass.

So he smothered the flames with as much cool control as he could, and shrugged lightly.

"Then I go. You not make miza, or have other thing, and I find other lizard. What else you think I say?"

The old man made him sweat. Dithered and sighed and clucked his tongue. Scratched at a tawny beards gone from grey to white, until finally he held up a hand, finger pointing skywards.

"Half a bell, and you owe me a favor."

"What kind of favor?"

"The kind I haven't decided on yet."


Konrad's friendly, open demeanor hardened a touch, and he didn't bother to hide it. He wanted Lawser to see that he wasn't a fool, and wasn't some over-eager young mage-in-training who'd agree to anything just to have the chance to practice on a new subject. He squared his hat back on his head, shuffling it a little until it was comfortable... and held out the hand that placed it there.

"If favor is... reasonable. If not, I say no. You and I go to Council, if you think I cheat you. That is fair."

Lawser weighed his options, and more importantly, his possible losses. Half a bell the man would be with them, hanging around some stupid hunk of scales and shyke that lugged their goods around, and then he'd be gone. And come a day, he could go to him and expect him to fulfill his word.

Lawser smiled, privately amused that the walahk thought the Council would take his side over him, a full-blood Drykas whose line went back to the Great Sundering. Not that he would ask for anything inappropriate, of course. Nothing that would bring the Wardens down on their heads. But times were hard, and getting harder. A man had to know he had friends to rely on... or, failing that, debts he could call in.

The two men shook. Witnessed and sanctified.

"Aye. Seems fair. C'mon, then, let's have you meet Rosy..."

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Note: As of Fall 517AV, Konrad is known only as "Hansel" in Endrykas
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Investigate, Extrapolate, Innovate, Demonstrate (Ouch!)

Postby Konrad Venger on August 29th, 2017, 2:27 pm

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For something that looked like the steed of some legendary warlord, Rosy was surprisingly docile. Twenty feet long, easily half a ton, all of it scaled and clawed and topped with a stumpy head with beady black eyes, Konrad was expecting fearsome suspicion when he approached.

Instead, that massive head swung to him, watched as he crouched down... and a tongue as long as his arm flicked out to lick his arm.

"She's sniffin' you, believe it or not," Lawser said from behind him, leaning on part of the fence that made up Rosy's enclosure. "They do it with their tongues. Their noses are for seeing how cold it is in the air, not smelling stuff. So I've been told, anyway."

Like a big bloody dog.

It didn't take long for him to realize that she was no threat. He'd heard that before, a year in Endrykas making him familiar with all the beasts the Horse Lords traveled with, but he'd never been this close to one. Now when he reached out to her, rested his hand on her snout... he saw no fear in her eyes. She didn't hiss or snarl or tense like a frightened animal about to attack out of fear.

She blinked, in that strange sideways fashion reptiles did, and eventually turned away from him.

I'm not here to feed or hurt you, so you don't care, do you? Things are more like bloody cats than dogs.

Mumbling from behind him. Muttered Pavi that carried a lilt of humor in it. Those kids, talking with... their father? Uncle? Cousin? Probably about him, the strange walahk who'd put himself in hock just to touch a big lizard. Konrad closed his eyes and shook his head, shooing the voices away. He came here for a reason, a purpose, to collect something he wouldn't need pockets or bags to carry. It would all be in his mind, learned through his touch, and for that, he needed to concentrate.

"Les'ave a look at yeh..."

Lawser frowned as that gnarly, choppy Common he didn't quite follow spilled from Hansel's mouth. The man moved to Rosy's neck and started touching the armored frill behind her head, flowing down from behind her eyes to past her shoulders like a chain-mail ruff. He'd seen it ward off crude Zith arrows before, even halt a slaver's javelin, iron head sliding off the thick scales and burying in her softer back instead. Though not very far: Ixam scales were all armored, in their way. It was just a matter of degrees.

"What's he doing?"

Lawser squinted. Watched the man stroke the frills, running his fingers over each one, shaped like a long, thick arrowhead. Each one connected to another beside it, overlapped the one below it and being overlapped by the ones behind it... scale after scale, perfectly and naturally formed to create an armored ring protecting Rosy's neck. Hansel stroked and felt and touched and even squeezed, paying them no mind all the while.

"He's learning."

"Learning what?"


Lawser hazarded a guess, but kept it to himself.

It wasn't what he was expecting. He thought it would be like chainmail, but after a chime, he could feel something... looser, under the scales. They moved too easily at the pressure of his fingers, and as he felt lower... he found their edge. Konrad frowned as he worked his fingers under it, lifted gently... and Rosy shifted subtly.

Okay, okay, point taken, girl.

But he'd seen enough. The scales weren't attached straight to her, they were... he didn't know the word for it. It was like there was a sheet attached around its neck, and the scales were set into the sheet. He frowned. Wouldn't it make more sense to have them straight in her skin? Why would Caiyha craft her so, with loose space under-

Make it loose, it's harder to pierce it, a stern voice whispered in his head. Remember what it's like, when the chain-nail's so loose that your blade just gets swallowed by it? If it's stretched tight, it's easier to get through it.

The walahk grunted and shrugged mentally. Either way, it seemed to be working. He could see a history of scars, scrapes, gouges and near-misses that had all tried to kill the big, smelly beast, and failed miserably thanks to that armored neck. Konrad closed his eyes, stroked the scales again... fingers tracing each scale as they bumped over them... seeing them in his mind thanks to his hands.

They smell with their mouth. So you can see with your hands.

Konrad chucked and Lawser frowned even harder. He didn't like the way the man seemed to laugh like one who knew a secret. Someone like that, with knowledge all to himself... it made him nervous. But a deal was a deal, and he would stick to it.

So he watched. Watched as the walahk became still, though his hand was still on Rosy, unconcerned and apparently settling down for a nap. Watched as the man's breathing seemed to slow, head bowed as if he was doing the same. Watched and frowned as the chimes leaked away with no movement, no words, nothing but Hansel squatting there in the dirt and shyke and trampled grass. Until he finally straightened up, determined to say something or-

"Gods... you seein' that?"

Lawser's frown vanished as his eyebrows shot up. He could see it. It was slow art first, and could easily be mistaken for a trick of the light. But as he blinked and shook his head and rubbed his eyes, he saw that was not the case.

Hansel's skin was... shimmering. Changing.

Morphing.

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Note: As of Fall 517AV, Konrad is known only as "Hansel" in Endrykas
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Investigate, Extrapolate, Innovate, Demonstrate (Ouch!)

Postby Konrad Venger on August 30th, 2017, 1:31 am

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Which was quite an exaggeration, of course.

Konrad may have been eagerly improving his disciplines as a mage, but he wasn't so overconfident to think that he could transform an entire limb after just one observation. He'd seen and felt what overgiving felt like, and still bore the scars of one such attempt. No, he'd not be trying to morph his whore arm yet... but he didn't need to.

Start small. Small and accurate. Then just make it bigger, as you get stronger.

The waiting was the hardest part for him. The time it took to enter that cool, quiet space in his mind, where all sounds and smells of Endrykas were banished. Just the scales under his fingers and his own mind, dark and peaceful, filled up slowly with... himself.

The image of him, kneeling, Rosy just a fuzzy outline in front of him. His clothes and his boots, his weapons and most of all, his body. Every inch of skin and scar he possessed, sketched into a canvas of his mind. And when the picture was complete, he delved deep into himself... felt the nameless energies roiling there... and started to change the picture.

My arm, he whispered, so softly it was as a breeze through his mind. From wrist, halfway to my elbow. Not all the way around, maybe a hand's span. Now... remember...

His fingers tensed, and he felt those hard, cool scales under their pads. Like Caiyha's own armor, chainmail for the Ixam, link after link making rank after rank, ringing Rosy's neck with protection. Konrad remembered how just one of them felt, and drew that form onto his skin. Made that leathery surface harden and rise-

... and craft it for yourself.

He hissed as his skin tugged and stung gently, a thousand tiny nails digging into him as his gods-given form was twisted in new, beneficial ways. But it had been so for decades and changing in such a fashion... he recoiled, even though he put this into motion in the first place. He ground his teeth and focused on the sketching through the pain. Focused on the scale he was working into his flesh, until he felt the space on his skin become curiously... numb.

Konrad dared open his eyes... and he smiled. A single, rough scale was etched onto his skin. He closed his eyes again, and reality matched the vision in his mind. He breathed deep, banishing sound again... focusing... concentrating... and made two more, on either side... skin seeming to strain and creak as it changed...

Drykas muttered cat-fast behind him, mewling in surprise. Good. That showed him it was working, if those cretins were gripped with such consternation. Two more and then two more, a single band of two-inch long and half-inch thick scales... until they spanned across half his arm...

Again, he dared to invite rude reality. Again, he was rewarded with the sight of scales across his skin. He reached up and flicked at them, laughed in a short, breathless fashion. He could... feel it, but not on the scales. As if they truly were armor that he was wearing. But they were also attached to him, as he felt when he tugged on one and almost squawked in surprised pain.

More. One rank will not be enough. Above and below.

"Bloody mage. Who would have figured?"

"I've heard the stories. Him and fire. Water, too. But... not this."


Lawser's nephew shook his head, jaw slack and eyes wide as they watched side by side. The walahk was sprouting scales from his forearm like mushrooms from a rotting log. First one, then three, then five, until they covered a straight line of skin... and then there were more. Above and below that first rank, and the man started to tremble slightly. Sweat glistened on his face as he screwed his eyes shut.

Lawser knew a man bent on his objective when he saw it. Pain would not stop him, unless it led to his death. Not that he doubted a man like Hansel was a stranger to agony.

"Good... good enough..."

The man muttered that Common again, when a patch of skin as long and broad as Lawser's outstretched hand covered his forearm. He rose slowly, feet a little shaky, turning his arm this way and that, admiring what he'd wrought upon himself. He turned and one of the runts took an involuntary step back, almost fearful.

Through the sweat on his drained face, Konrad smiled. He'd forgotten that look. Part of him had missed it. But he had more important concerns than cheap intimidation. He poked and flicked and tapped his scales, and Lawser winced as he heard the same familiar tok-tok-tok he would when he rapped Rosy on her neck.

"So... you're satisfied?"

Konrad smiled again, and there was an edge to the gesture now. Something hiding behind those ruined lips. By way of answer, his hands went behind his back... and came up with an oddly-curved blade.

"Not yet."

Don't Make Me Repeat Myself.

||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
User avatar
Konrad Venger
Long is The Way and Hard
 
Posts: 923
Words: 1060755
Joined roleplay: November 23rd, 2015, 4:05 pm
Location: Endrykas
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Investigate, Extrapolate, Innovate, Demonstrate (Ouch!)

Postby Konrad Venger on September 1st, 2017, 5:13 pm

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"Now I know you've gone bloody starkers."

Konrad wasn't far along enough in his Pavi to get that last word, but he didn't exactly need a translator. Lawser's slack jaw and disbelieving tone was enough to tell him he thought the walahk's request was... unwise.

"Not blame you if thing goes wrong."

"Oh, aye, you say that now. When you haven't got a bloody blade sticking out of your arm."


Konrad frowned, piecing together the Pavi and the picture it was painting before replying with, "Not be in my arm. Ask you to chop, so blade will-"

"You know what I bloody mean!"


Konrad smiled. Of course he knew. He wasn't so stupid or "bonkers" that he didn't see how mad he seemed. After all, what else would you call a man asking another to cut his arm off?

The scales had stayed in place, but they were naught but cosmetics unless they were tested. Konrad poked them with his kukri... and felt the tip through them. Like wearing armor: just the pressure, not the pain, the blood, anything. So he pushed harder, and harder... until he felt the prick between them.

Just like chainmail. Press hard enough in the right place, the blade will go through.

He was aware the old Drykas and his kin were watching, but blocked them out. He needed to make them thicker. Again he closed his eyes, breathed deep... and spread his fingers wide... then clenched them into a fist-

More. Need more.

The art was drawn. The scales crafted. he didn't need to really change them, just thicken them. Clench, clench, clench, and with every movement, every flex and tightening of his arm muscles, he sent another shudder of djed into the patch of scales he'd grafted onto his forearm.

It was tiny, and only this close could he see the difference, but there was a difference, and that was what mattered. He could feel that tiny increase of weight, pushing down on the muscle and bone under the scales. The score or so of scales seemed thicker, longer, as if belonging to an older, larger Ixam. Konrad licked his lips... and with more confidence than he felt-

"Shyke!"

Tok!

Lawser was expecting blood, screams, rent flesh, but got none of that. Instead he saw the thrusting kukri stop against the scaly surface of the walahk's skin, and go no further. Even when the walahk ground the blade against his new armor, and grinned when the kukri could gain no purchase.

You're holding back, Konrad reminded himself. Half strength... no, less than that. A full swing from a sword, even from this little bastard, the scales wouldn't be enough.

But it's a start.


True enough, but Konrad wasn't yet satisfied. So he walked towards the Drykas watching, flipped the kukri over in his hand and offered it to a dumbstruck Lawser. Then he told him exactly what he wanted him to do.

"No. This is bloody stupid."

"You watched. You saw. Scales are good."

"And what if yer wrong? What if I end up taking half your arm off, or damn near?"


Konrad shrugged, as if losing a limb was of little concern to him. "Not you fault. I asked you. I was stupid mage that thought could not know Dira. You kids see, and hear. They say same."

He wished he could feel as confident, as insouciant as he sounded. Truth be told, he didn't know just how effective his new innovation was, and that seemed like something you should know precisely before you asked some sod to start swinging steel at you. But this was the best way to find out.

You'll hold back, because you're not an idiot. So it has to be someone else... but, that said-

"Not have to be at full swing," he added, trying to sound coaxing but coming off as more than a little hasty. Lawser was pleasantly surprised: at least the walahk had some sense of self-preservation. "Just half. Good swing, just one. Then deal is done and I go."

"Oh, this is a whole new deal, friend."

"New deal, new favor. Now you have two."


Lawser ground his teeth and cursed letting this batshyke bastard into his pavilion. But before he could get indignant, an opportunistic little voice whispered that, well... he was getting a pretty good deal out of this. Wasn't his arm, after all. And like Hansel said himself, with witnesses around, no-one would blame him if the worst happened. All it would take was one little swing of that little blade...

"... okay. Two favors. Gimme the sodding blade. And then you're gone, right?"

Konrad's neck was practically on a hinge, it was bobbing and nodding so much. He stuffed the kukri into Lawser's hand, wanting this rolling before the prick chickened out yet again. He held up a hand and clenched his hand, closing his eyes and trying to will another few drams of djed into his scales. He didn't know how much it would matter, but at this point, every little bit, right?

Come on... little more.

It wasn't like Reimancy. It was harder. Difficult to pin down and grasp. The difference between shooting a fixed target, and one actively trying to evade him. He could do it, but it took more patience, more effort... and was, ultimately, more satisfying.

Konrad exhaled slowly and added to the sketch, the model in his mind. Thicker. He made them thicker, smudging the scales until they were nearly double as thick as Rosy's. They'd bloody have to bed... even if they didn't look quite as nice when he opened his eyes again.

Early days.

"Do it. Now."

There was no resisting that terse command. He held out his arm, scales up, and Lawser swallowed to loud Konrad could hear the lump squeeze down his throat. He gripped the kukri, glanced at his sons... raised it high... then brought it down-

TOK!

Yes!

Shhhk!

"SHYKE!"


"You told me you told me to do it you can't blame me we all saw you ask me to-"

Quite a bit happened in the space of, oh, about three ticks. Syna flashed in the curved blade, sweeping like silent lightning and Konrad doubted, he feared, he felt nothing al at once, for the moment had come. All he could do was bite down hard and trust to his skill and then-

-the blade smacked into the scales, and Konrad hissed at the shock of impact... but that was all there was. No blood. No muscle and crushed scaled cleaved open, no bone bit into by sharpened steel. The scales held, and his face twisted into a smile-

-that didn't last, because this was hardly Lawser's preferred weapon, and his grip was off, the blade bounced and slid off the scales, scraping along them-

-and into Konrad's arm. His actual arm.

Then there was blood. The sharp, bright bite of metal into him. A familiar pain that knocked him down to one knee as he jerked away from his own weapon. Lawser immediately dropped it, babbling and sputtering and staring at the gash in the crook of Hansel's elbow. It was pumping blood, dripping and dribbling around the bend in his arm until it pattered onto the ground.

Konrad could hear him. Too much. He couldn't focus on his craft. He needed to remove these scales, then worry about his arm, but right now, all he could hear was this whining, moaning, begging, excusing-

"SILENCE!"

He was an outsider, and a walahk, and in their pavilion, but when that single word boomed out from his maw, they obeyed. Lawser, his son, his nephews and cousin, all of them clammed up and stared like living statues. The sheer, naked threat of the man was enough to cow them, even when he closed his eyes... and let go a ragged breath...

Smudge it out. Get rid of it. Always easier to destroy than create.

Which wasn't philosophy, in Konrad's opinion, it was just a fact of life. His life, especially. It took hours, days, season to create something beautiful and worthwhile. Mere ticks to destroy it. So he found his sketch easily enough, the one he'd spent the best part of an hour crafting. Found it and captured it, focusing on the scales he'd drawn on his arm... and he smudged them away... until that patch of skin was restored to its tanned, scarred precondition.

His arm was alive with pain, with pumping, hissing agony... and then something else. The scales shimmered again. Roiling above the bloody gash, until they started shrinking. Bleached of their odd color, withdrawing into his forearm like a cat's claws back into its paw. Konrad ground his teeth and sucked in breath between them. It was taking too long. Gods, it hurt... but when he opened his eyes... and banished the sketch-

His forearm was back as it was. The scales were gone, save for the model in his mind... oh, and his arm was pissing blood.

"G-Gimme a soddin' cloth. Now!" He didn't even need to speaek Common to be understood. One of Lawser's buddies handed over a 'kerchief with trembling hands, and Konrad wrapped up his arm with a grunt. Shyke, he'd had worse in training sessions. "Shallow. Not deep. Just make blood. Will go get man in Pridesun to clean and sew."

There were no farewells. They weren't friends. He just started walked and they damn well cleared the way, even though the man was injured, holding his arm, blood already soaking into the cloth bound tight around it. Only when he was on the edge of their pavilion did Lawser find his voice.

"H-Hey? You owe me, remember?"

Konrad turned. He couldn't resist the smirk that crossed his face. Let the Drykas read into his tone and manner what he liked: as far as he was concerned, his words were true. And whatever Lawser had planned, he was still getting the better end of the deal.

"I remember. I not forget my debts."

Don't Make Me Repeat Myself.

||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
Location: Endrykas
Race: Human, Mixed
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Investigate, Extrapolate, Innovate, Demonstrate (Ouch!)

Postby Ashka Windrunner on October 9th, 2017, 11:51 pm

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Shiny New Grades !


Konrad Venger

 
Skills
  • Negotiation +2
  • Socialization +2
  • Meditation +2
  • Morphing +2

 
Lores
  • Archery: Bracers are used to protect the arm from the whip of the string
  • Monster: Plain Ixam
  • Drykas: Forthright people
  • Rosy: Docile plain Ixam
  • Plain Ixams: Smell with their tongue
  • Morphing model: Plain Ixam neck scale
  • Morphing: Harder to grasp than Reimancy
  • Lawser: Owed two favours

 
Rewards and Penalties
  • Shallow gash near the elbow, will heal in seven days with proper medical care, fifteen days without
  • -14 GM, noted in ledger
  • An archery bracer
  • Full supplies for Hunter/Trapper kit


A very enjoyable read, your clever NPCs additions definitely adds flavour to the thread, as well as offering interesting opportunities. I didn't award you many Morphing lores because you already have the ones I saw here.
If you have any questions or think I have missed something don't hesitate to PM me, and remember to edit your request in the Grading queue.


- Thanks to Aladari Coolwater for the boxcode
Pavi Grassland signs | Common | Nari
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Ashka Windrunner
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Joined roleplay: November 22nd, 2016, 9:54 pm
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