Day 9
Fisk's Office
The trainer folds his hands, tapping index fingers to his lips. "I don't care what your mother got up to while she was here. The Oathless are scum, but still citizens of Vigil and you do not have authority to hand out justice like that...that said, it isn't unexpected from youth trying to become Knights."
He sighs and leans back in the chair. "You will be given extra clean up duties around the Bonewatch since you seem to have too much time to go wandering looking for trouble. And you.." He glances to Eckart. "What was the plan then? To gut them all? To come back as heroes, getting commendations for 'cleaning up the streets?' Do you follow every rough group of fellows in the Oathless quarter? There must be quite a few."
His gaze snaps back to the Tilernos sisters. "Your family may be well known, but Tilernos always seems to mean trouble for me...Did..did you see anything else out of the ordinary while you were down by the docks?"
Fisk's eyes narrow as he considers.
"Umm... I..." Eckart closes his mouth and doesn't say anything else but lowers his head to look at the ground.
"N-no, sir. W-we were just out for a g-good time." Eilidh speaks up from behind the others.
Day 9
Fisk's Office
Surprisingly, Fisk seems to believe you. His gaze lessens in intensity somewhat and he leans back with a small sigh. "Alright then..I want you all to spend the rest few days cleaning out the arena. If you all work on it, it should be completed easily enough. Just..try to stay out of trouble."
He waves his hand to dismiss you and the group turns to leave. Ardis's shoulders are slumped while Jalen looks thoughtful. As you open the door and start filing out, Fisk calls out one more time. "Oh, and I'll have to subtract five points from Cohort One for this behavior. Dismissed."
Once she's certain they're out of earshot, Eilidh lets out a huge sigh of relief. "Okay....Alright, I d-don't think he thinks w-we saw him at the...at the Rose Chalice, b-but we shouldn't g-go back there, j-just in case. At least, n-not for a while. As for the c-cleaning, I s-suppose we should g-get to that quickly. Th-that is, unless any of us h-have jobs w-w-we're required t-to be at." Eilidh begins walking out of the Bonewatch and to the Crusader War College, flipping through her notes to prepare herself for class.
On their way to the Crusader War College, Eilidh grabs Kassie's arm and pulls her away from the rest of the cohort.
In class, Eilidh brings up a passage from A Treatise on Infantry Attacks, discussing wedge-formation tactics against overwhelming numbers.
Day 9
Characters: All
Ardis leans a hand on the wall and sighs as well, shaking his head. " For awhile? I don't think I'm going to leave the Bonewatch again. I don't want to get on Fisk's bad side any more than I already am.."
Jalen, on the other hand, just shakes his head. "He's hiding something. Why would he care what we did to some thieves? And why would he inquire so much about what we saw? He's worried about that meeting. Somehow. He seems to have something against you and your sister too, Eilidh."
After the group left and went out of the office, Daen also spoke up. "There is plenty to do here after all. We'll see how we do and possibly we can bounce back from this penalty by the end of the week." Daen wasn't particularly happy about having to clean, but it was better than being thrown out of the bonewatch altogether. Next time they'd have to leave less of a footprint. That friend of Fisk had the right of it if they wanted to keep out of trouble.
After class, Daen informed the professor that he wouldn't be in until Thursday due to an unexpected opportunity.
"Well that was a close one. I almost thought we would be expelled. Let's get cleaning the arena so he knows that we are serious about being here."
Eckart spends his downtime cleaning today.
Day 9
Characters: All
Ardis nods enthusiastically at Daen. "You're right! We need to stay out of trouble and just do as he asks, we'll make sure our Cohort is back on top."
Jalen sighs and shrugs. "We may as well get to work. Let's head to the Crusader War College first to spend a few hours on Comell's tactics."
He turns, leading the cohort back down the steps and into the Bonewatch's outer courtyard. A pair of rats skitter past your legs, squeaking as they dash under a cabinet. Following close behind, and almost running into you, is Marcus Flint, one of Leo's lackies. He holds a thick cudgel in one hand and has another rat held in one hand, crushed by the looks of it.
"Out of the way, idiots! You're lettin' them get away!"
Daen was used to being insulted, especially when one was in a hurry. "They dashed under that cabinet." He said while pointing it out. "Keep working hard, you'll get them eventually." He did his best not to sound sarcastic when he said this last phrase, as he was trying to actually help, he just wasn't terribly good at doing so. Perhaps he should just move along to class.
"W-w-what did you d-do to d-d-deserve rat-catching duty? My m-mother always s-saved it for if Kassie or I was really...was really bad." Eilidh stops, curious. "Th-there was one near Cohort One's b-b-barracks last n-night. M-maybe if you l-look there, you'll f-find more."
"Cleaning the Arena? Gods but I hate that job! I suppose its better than rat-catching but still... He was kind of nervous about what we might have seen, but things could have gone a lot worse. I think we might have to keep a bit of an eye on Fisk."
Day 9
Characters: All
Cohort Two's scrub sneers at Allie. "Trainer Luca doesn't like it when you break other scrubs' arms in the arena. If ya ask me, they should just learn to fight better."
He moves past Daen and pauses, glancing at the magus before looking under the cabinet and grunting. His hand darts under and snatches the rat before it can scurry away. The little creature squirms in his hand and turns, biting him hard on the thumb before Flint squeezes it as hard as he can. Surprisingly, instead of the expected crack of rodent bones, the thing bites down even harder. Flint curses and drops it in surprise, cradling his hand now rushing with blood. As it runs off, he sulks against the wall, glaring at cohort one and grumbling.
"...damn weird. It was like squeezing a rock.."
The Crusader War College today seems full of energy. Several elder students can be over heard talking about a jousting tournament coming up soon.
Comell's class is weirdly comforting after the meeting with Fisk and the run in with Marcus. His droning voice goes on about the use of light skirmishers against pike units and historical infantry formations. He seems pleased that Allie is completing the reading and grins broadly at her for her contribution.
Day 9
Characters All
After several hours of intense study, the group trudges over to the arena for their brief training routine with Fisk. Unlike on Moondays, there is much less time spent on practice during the rest of the week. Fisk, for the most part, ignores all of you. Although after class, he nods to the thick sand of the arena and gestures silently to a spigot on a wall nearby before walking off.
Jalen sighs and gets to work quietly. Ardis sulks the whole time, complaining that Jalen was the one to actually kill the one robber and the rest of them made sure not to deal any lethal blows so they shouldn't be punished. The rest of the night is uneventful, although the group notices a pair of rats drinking from the dripping spigot a few times.
Day 10 & Day 11
Characters: All
Day 10 and 11 are routine besides the cohort having to spend their precious downtime working on cleaning the arena. Day ten is spent with Priestess Astrata on the tenants of Iomedae while Magister Dazen instructs on the differences between arcane and divine magic.
"Has anyone n-n-noticed...has anyone seen all the rats around h-here? M-mother told a lot of s-stories about the Bonewatch, b-but not anything about r-rats, and c-certainly not this many of them?" Eilidh works on cleaning the arena floor, splashing water into the sand. "Th-that friend of Leo's was h-hunting r-ra...hunting rats. Maybe we should s-start helping b-before we get overrun by them."
Day 9
The classes were generally simple for the studied half-elf. He had hoped to put more time into practicing for the duels, both in his extra classes and at the end of the week.
There did seem to be something unusual about that rat, it had far more tenacity than it should have for a thing that small. Either someone was doing some sort of experiment with them, or perhaps there was something around here that had a fortifying effect. Daen nods at Allie. "Rats are a part of any settlement, but the rats here seem peculiar. I don't think I'll run from a fight, especially against vermin such as these. Once it's clean in here, there won't be much reason for them to come back."
Despite revolting the notes for Astarta's class, Kassie fails to answer the questions put to her, although the next day she surprises even herself with her understanding of the differences between divine and arcane magic. Rats? You know that they're all over the place Allie. If I were a rat I think I'd have bitten him too! Don't you think we have enough work cleaning the arena? Gods but I stink! When do you think we'll have time to visit the baths? I feel like I haven't washed in a week!
Rolls for classes:
Total points for the week so far: -1
Day 12: Challenge Day
The group has spent the last three days furiously cleaning the training arena for this day. The sand has been taken out, cleaned and replaced. The floors scrubbed. All training weapons have been polished and those with missing parts sent to be repaired. The glass orbs that provide light in the Bonewatch have been dusted. They noticed a rat watching them from the arena's benches on day 10, but nothing since then.
The chalk board that bears each cohort's slowly tallied points based on, at least so far, each member's progress in the training has been updated.
Cohort One 16
Cohort Two 7
Cohort Three 14
Cohort Four 40
It seems that the fourth cohort, who none of you have interacted with much, has been doing exceptional in their class work.
Day 12
Characters All
Boost action. (Boosts may be used as a swift action)
By using the skill of the empty-handed warriors that came before him, the disciple focuses his will to using his body in less conventional ways in combat. When initiating this boost, the initiator gains a +4 competence bonus to his next CMB check when using his unarmed strike or discipline weapon to perform the following combat maneuvers: dirty trick, disarm, grapple, or trip.
Strike (standard action to use).
The disciple of the Broken Blade learns to maximize openings in his opponent's defenses and makes lightning fast attacks whenever possible. As a standard action, the initiator may make two attacks at his full base attack bonus.
Day 12
Characters:
Fisk has you circle around him while he stands with arms folded, frowning, as usual. "Most of you have made it to your second week here."
A brief look around causes you to realize Urias no longer stands among you.
"That does not mean you move up a rank automatically. We will be going through the seconds list to find a replacement. This week, I want you to again focus on what we have practiced. No weapons allowed in the arena."
The announcement is met with several groans. Fisk smiles. "Magic, however, is allowed."
Jalen lets out a grunt and glances over to Daen, frowning and shaking his head before shrugging at the duelist. Very few of the other scrubs look pleased.
Bryson and Vorin both look pleased. As does Theodric and Elyssa.
Daen finished cleaning the arena, silently cursing his luck. He'd much rather be doing sword work this afternoon instead of redistributing sand. The equipment wasn't too bad for it, and the presence of everyone else made the day go quickly, but it wasn't good for him not to go to the first class. He at least ran over there and got some exercises he could do before class on Sunday, but it didn't really help his mood.
Day 12
Characters: All
Fisk starts with the lowest ranks, as he did last week. Kathleen quickly challenges Cilys but loses terribly. Gideon emulates her, hoping the girl would be weaker from a second challenge but he also loses. For herself, Cilys tries to leap over Ardis and fight against the noble Aiden. She seems to either have practiced a lot the last week or is very lucky and drops Aiden after a few exchanges.
Ardis challenges red-haired Lond. The fight starts in Ardis's favor. As Lond charges toward him, Ardis trips him and puts him on his back. The other boy sweeps with his legs as he tries to stand but only receives a punch to the neck and goes down in a single hit. Ardis grins, looking pleased and he glances over at Allie.
Lond goes up next and tries to fight against Rhill the Orphan. The white-haired boy makes use of Fisk's recent teachings where Lond continues to fight clumsily, unable to beat him. Bespectacled Bryson follows up to fight Theodric. Both of them start off by casting a short spell. Bryson's body becomes covered in translucent, overlapping plates while Theodric summons forth two shields to rotate around him. Bryson's skill proves stronger as the larger, and fairly fat, boy throws down the frowning noble.
Despite the magic still covering Bryson, Rhill tries to challenge him and fails. Theodric challenges Vorin who moves with supernatural speed toward the boy, starting the fight off on the upper hand. Theodric never recovers and surrenders after getting a wicked black eye.
Adir, however, chooses to challenge Daen. The bald youth, the tallest youth there now that Urias has left grins and bows to the magus. "I've seen you with that book...and it will give you a hand up. Let us see if I can still take you down."
Battle One
Round One
Adir Rheahyer Vs. Daen Aheritor
Having studied Adir the week before, he made a quick rush at him, catching him off guard. If he could get some solid damage early, he might be able to escape this unscathed. He remains silent to hopefully give his opponents no inclination of what he was thinking.
Battle One
Round One
Adir takes a step back and tries to avoid Daen's attack. He stumbles in the sand, off balance, and the punch collides with the tall boy's stomach. He stumbles back, trying to take in deep breaths of air before lashing out with a side kick.
for nonlethal.
Daen lifts his hands up to block but the force of the blow pushes through and throws him back a few steps.
Daen takes the hit, knowing it to be a solid one and also knowing that he couldn't take another like that focused his mind for a split second. As his the baldy in front of him righted himself, the half elf visualized his success in his mind. The onlookers' voices seemed to disappear as only his opponent filled his vision. He did a feint and struck hard with an uppercut to the jaw, hoping to render the taller boy unconscious as the maneuver did leave him open for counter attack again.
Battle One
Round Two
Before Adir can even take advantage of his strike, Daen follows it up with a quick flurry of jabs. The larger scrub tries to block the jabs only to miss a change in stance and an uppercut takes him in the jaw. Daen almost smiles as the boy's eyes roll back in his head and he slumps back onto the sand.
"Adir fails to go up a rank."
Fisk steps forward with his wand and, as usual, grants a single charge to each individual.
(nonlethal heals for double)
Vorin, winks at Daen and claims he will challenge position eight. He looks around at the cohort and steps into the ring, shrugs, then steps out.
Fisk rolls his eyes. "Should have mentioned that you can't do that..whatever. You go up to eight, Vorin. Daen, do you want to issue a challenge?"
Eilidh watches with great interest as Ardis takes Aiden apart, and shoots him a quick, nervous grin when he looks at her afterwards. She thinks a silent prayer to Sarenrae, interrupting it with laughter when Vorin fights his fight.
Cleaning the arena is boring work but Eckart does not slack off. He likes it here and wants very much to stay and not get in trouble again. If anyone complains he says nothing. In his classes he does his best to learn but some things are right past his understanding for now.
Finally it seems the work is done but the week is over already and he has been unable to do any extra study or training. He really regrets that night out.
Still the fights are somewhat in his favor and he will challenge the one above him in the rankings.
"I'd like to challenge Eckart." He said as he composed himself from the previous fight. It was the largest jump he could do and he had a desire to move up a bit. He was too close to any sort of cut off down the list. Of course it wasn't personal and he gave Eckart a shrug to tell him so. He stepped back into the ring and readied himself.
Battle Two: Eckart Vogelstein vs. Daen Aheritor
Fisk nods toward Daen and Eckart, standing back. "Hmn. Go ahead and show me if you've learned anything."
Eckart nods at Daen and steps into the ring ready to start.
The half elf rushes forward again, faking a quick jab but following it up with a knee to the stomach. Eckart was a decent kid, but he could show no mercy if he wanted to stay out of the bottom half. He kept his arcane skills out of it for the moment. It would be best if people still wondered about such things. Let loose all your secrets and you won't have any aces when they come gunning for you later.
No, too much thinking. Focus on the now.
Eckart couldn't believe that the boy could move so fast and before he knew it a knee was in his stomach beating the wind out of him, staggering him. But he could not give up and with his new skills he makes 2 quick punches straight at one of his new friends.
Daen had his head knocked back to the present with Eckart's ferocious response. He weakly made a couple of punches back, clearly staggered from the previous round. He also kept up his defensive stance a bit better this time, hoping to drag out the fight a bit.
Eckart sees his quick return was successful and gave him a bit of space but his head was swimming and energy expended. He made a left swipe that went wide.
As Eckart's counterattack went wide, Daen pivoted with his back foot and brought his elbow around to catch him in the ear. He stood there dazed a moment, not sure what just happened as the whole thing happened without his thinking, still ready for the return volley. The result of his training seemed to be really paying off.
As he left the ring, he waited for Eckart to get back up with some help from the wand. Good fight man, I felt it could have gone either way. At least that's what he wanted to say, but then he'd have not acknowledged his other fight and maybe stirred up some bad feelings when there was a nearly equal hit he took from Adir.
He took a few seconds for a breather and refocused his mind, attempting to remember and visualize his successes. When prompted he decided to challenge again. He could probably be looked down on for it, but he really didn't want to fight either of the Tilernos sisters. "I'd like to challenge Austyn for the fourth slot."
At the last moment he sees the attack coming in and tries to turn his head but he is not fast enough and goes down. After he is healed he stands up and leaves the ring. I almost had him... I don't like fighing those I'm making friends with... Once he is out he takes a moment to catch his breath also.
Day 12
Fisk nods his head toward Daen and offers both scrubs a healing jolt.
Austyn growls as he enters the ring, cracking his knuckles and his neck. He's one of the larger scrubs and doesn't seem very pleasant.
"Oh, want to take me on now, eh, Daen? I won't be as easy as that foreigner."
Battle Three
Daen Aheritor vs Austyn Hammel
Austyn charges forward, trying to catch Daen off guard and end the fight in one blow. for nonlethal damage.
Waiting to receive the healing that normally came between rounds caused Daen to not get the jump on his next opponent. He still hadn't recovered from the blows of the previous fight when Austyn came in fast.
Knowing the strategy of charging in quite well from using it to good effect in the last two fights, Daen was ready with a counter. At the last second, he stepped forward and under the incoming haymaker. Getting low, he was hoping to land a shoulder in the middle of the gut and a hand around one knee to drive him into the ground. The impact of the larger and stronger Austyn rattled his whole body but the smaller half elf had leverage and technique.
As the fights begin Kassie slumps down to sit in the dust next to Allie in the area's dust. When Ardis wins his fight and glances over she leans in to whisper
Kassie leans in to watch the fight between Eckhart and Daen, wincing at each blow as it is exchanged. When Eckhart looses, she lets out a sigh and moves over to him, offering a hand to help him up from the dust and leans in...
The hulking fighter attempts to block the first attack, but is completely open. Daen's attacks hit Austyn and he stops the charge in its tracks. He falls to the sand, clutching his stomach, knocked out cold.
Fisk shakes his head, moves forward and revives the unconscious teen with a wand charge. "Third win for Daen. Do you wish to go for another? If not, Elyssa you're up next."
Elyssa challenges Kassara, leaping forward and laughing, beckoning the Tilernos girl into the ring with a cocky smile. "Come on, come on. I'm not one to be content with a low rank even if it is high enough to stay in the Bonewatch for good! I'm going to be number one!"
Daen, still feeling a bit astonished that he's gotten this far, decides to go for broke. "Yeah, I'll go for it. Jalen, let's do this." Cracking his knuckles, he finally casts his first spell as he steps into the ring. The magical shield will only last for a minute, but if it does the job, he won't be needing another spell today. Of course he'd rather not have to defend the number one position, but it would be a lot harder to knock him out of the top ten once he'd attained it.
Battle Four
Daen Aheritor vs. Jalen Sturgis
Jalen nods and rolls his neck, entering the arena. "Good. Fighting Rans every time would get boring."
The first ranked member of the cohort folds his hands and closes his eyes briefly, his feet shifting into a position Daen knows is a battle stance of some type, but not one that Fisk has taught. As he casts his shield, it seems out of the corner of his eye a pair of ghostly wings fold over Jalen's back and front only to disappear again.
When he moves, it is unexpected and swift. One instant he's standing still, the next he's nearly on top of Daen. As the magus lifts his hands into a defensive position, Jalen dodges to the side and rolls past him.
Unfortunately for Jalen, Daen had seen the maneuver against Rans several times and managed to turn his reaction into it. Daen reacts quickly, , before Jalen's attack comes at him.
for damage.
Eilidh looks Kassie in the eye for a moment and walks over to Ardis. "Y-you did well in there. I h-hope when it's m-my turn I don't embarrass myself t-to b-badly." giving him another shy grin, she stands next to him and watches the fighting.
Battle Five
Elyssa Arunt versus Kassara Tilernos
After Daen's fight, Elyssa leaps into the arena. "Kassie! Come on, you trumped Leo good the other day..I want a turn to see what I can do!" Scales glisten along Elyssa's neck and arms, protecting vulnerable areas. She also is moving much like she did last week after drinking something from a hip flask and her eyes seem slitted like a snakes.
The alchemist moves first, Kassara preparing for the attack. Elyssa leaps forward into a series of jabs, dropping to attempt a low kick to the side. for and sneak attack.
The quick change and attack is smooth, but Kassie isn't a novice fighter. She steps backward, kicks forward herself and blocks the move.
He saw it coming, but his reflexes were not used to Jalen's speed. His kick at the rolling figure spread out his base too wide, leaving him open for a kidney shot. Daen half expected this. He's the one with the kill on the bandits they ran into that night. It would be good experience in any case.
No one fails to notice Eilidh's approach. Ardis grins, nodding his head. "I'm just glad to start making my way up the rankings..its hard when everyone keeps jumping over you and you start low. At least you don't have to worry much! I wouldn't want to get dropped out of the Bonewatch after only the first month.."
Kassie manages to deflect Elyssa's strike and grins at the other girl. "Pretty quick. 'Lyssa, but not quick enough! Let's see how good you are?"/ with that she dances forward and pivots to kick at her. Unfortunately, the blow is badly timed and she misses.