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 Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 12:40 pm
This Quest is for Iroia who is striving to become a Swordsman.
 OOC
||. The quest prompt must be answered with a 2000 word reply (can be more).
||. Respond to the prompt given with an adventure of your own creation as long as it meets the requirements of the specific tasks.
||. NPCs may be used as long as they advance the quest in an interesting manner.
||. You cannot include any playable characters other than the quest taker.
||. Your responses will be graded with a Pass or Fail. Those who fail will have to continue with assistance from the staff.
||. Questions about quests can be asked here.
IC
It was still early morning and Iroia was being sent northwest, towards the Jauhar border to meet with a master swordsman for her training. This shifter was to teach her a new techniques that the shifters of Jauhar had perfected.
While on her way there was a mix up in the directions and Iroia had gone too far north and past the meeting place, ending up in the Dead Woods. The creaking and groaning of the dead trees around her were nothing compared to what she was going to find, or what was going to find her. It was only a matter of time before the Dretch struck.
They were already waiting and watching her there in the woods, and were biding their time until she was cornered.
Quest Tasks
||. This quest should involve a meeting with Dretch. Iroia can find either one or two Dretch, both a master in swords.
||. The meeting will be the start of a battle. The result of the battle will not effect the outcome of the quest.
||. Whether she wins or loses, Iroia's mentor will come looking for her. If she loses the battle, he/she will save her with their skills.
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Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2014 9:13 pm
Iroia set off into Jahaur with a spring in her step, she was delighted to be on the move again with a purpose. A time to stretch her legs and get a better look at Jahaur as she had been a little preoccupied the last time she had been here. Most importantly though she could get in some real, hard core training. Light and joy seemed to fill her heart at the prospect and comencement of this trip. People had begun to notice how hard she found and she had been recommended to a shifter master of sword. She was very honored and all the sweat that poured off her seemed doubly worth it. Looking around as she moved she absorbed the beauty of this place. Wild and free, the landscape magnified her good mood.
The trees loomed over her, thick and tall, draped with lightly glowing masses of moss. She could hear the scurrying movements of a healthy, thriving forest. It was very different from the open plains of Tale with its few scraggly trees. Here it was hard not to get a little claustrophobic with the old growth spaced so close together. It seemed like the air also pulled in closer here, the humidity so high it was not long before Iroia was quite soaked in sweat that would not evaporate no matter how much she waved her arms around. It was hot in Tale too, but it was a more arid climate that was accompanied by wind. The air around her now was quiet and still and heavy.
This lack of distraction and company let Iroia think in a relaxed and positive atmosphere. No insults, no worries, no social obligations. She felt fluid and free. This was a big step to her future, real training. Not just a spar with an opponant, not even a big melee battle. This would make her stronger and more tactical, she knew her energy could be a strength or weakness and she hoped this experience would help focus that for the positive. Ruelash wasn't here to step in for her when her lack of skill made her vulnerable. She was strong but she would do so much better with concentrated practice and teachings.
Iroia was so deep in these thoughts of the future that her footsteps melted into each other and upon seeing something odd on the path which turned out to be a scraggly dead branch, knotted and scored. She looked up and gasped, there were more sick trees then healthy ones. What had happned here to destroy so much life? When she looked back the trees looked healthier, pity she had to keep going..why would a shifter master of sword live out here ick, it was a depressing sight all this death. Come to think of it hadn't she heard there was a place like this? The Dead Forest, or something like that..the name sure suited it.. it was uber creepy here. It was much to quiet, no chirping, no scuffing, no buzzing, just a heavy silence pumctuated by the noise the trees made in the light wind, that made her hair want to stand on end.
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Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2014 9:40 pm
A twig snapped behind her and Iroia froze, her back stiffened almost painfully. Slowly she turned to see a thing...the only humanoid thing about it was its stance...this was her worst nightmare, a walking bug. She felt a huge burst of fear seemingly burn through her insides. She couldn't move, not a muscle..then the thing made a noise....and an answering click sounded behind her, she swung ninety degrees so she had both of the awful things in her sight. Gods there were two, as if one wasn't nasty enough. Her skin tried to crawl off her and she fumbled for her borrowed blades. One fell in the dust but the other landed solidly in her palm with a thunk. She held it out, keeping her eyes on both of them before slowly leaning down and reaching for her other blade. This was a mistake and she knew it but there was no way to get through this without her other blade.
They rushed her at the same time and she grabbed for her knife and back away as quick as she could half bent over. Her opinion of them didn't improve as they got closer, they were spiny and plated and ugh they had pedipalps..people were not supposed to have pedipalps. She almost gagged on fear and disgust. She hated bugs, beetles that were edible were one thing but long spindly, crunchy things like these it was just ICK. They started for her shoulder to shoulder, then it appeared they hit an imaginary barrier and split to either side. This sucked. She couldn't watch both at the same time. For the first time she wished he had a familiar to handle/watch one of her opponents. Her jaw tightened until she was reasonably sure she would crack her teeth, she moved closer to one side hoping to keep them both in front of her where she could see them. To no avail, she felt something destinctly bug like touch her from behind and she screeched, paniced and rushed the one she could see stabbing from on high to down and gouging a nice hole in his skin/carapace type this. The creature spewed a monologue of buzzing clicking noises and shoved her into his fellow who's arm locked around her throat. She struggled but the blade that she hadn't even noticed earlier came around and there was no mistaking cold hard steel on tender flesh. She shuddered.
Tears leaked out of her green eyes and she lamented not seeing Ruelash again. She had failed herself had failed him, failed the instructor she hadn't met yet and the people who believed in her enough to send her hear. This was not the way she had wanted to go.
The creature clicked in her ear and his partner came forward with his own sword. It was a fine quality, the wielder must be skilled. Hah beaten by her own weapon type. That made her scowl and some of her spunk came back into her eyes. She spat at the ugly thing. He calmly wiped off the spittle and kept coming towards her. She decided he must be of higher rank to warrent the honor of her death. Scum bag.
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Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2014 10:09 pm
Well if she was going to die she wouldn't need her neck anyway. She stabbed back with one of her blades and felt the one across her neck bite into the skin of her throat, she hoped it wasn't too deep, it stung awfully. She swallowed and pushed the bug things arm away. She had no name for them, she had probably known it once but had since forgotten..on second though probably repressed so she could still travel at night without horrifying fear. Free but bleeding she got away from him.
Then she blinked as her captor crumpled over onto the ground in a heap...one stab wouldnt have done that would it? He fell onto his face and another blade stuck up out of his back. Someone else was here. It could be a friend it could be a foe. She glanced around just as the other bug man was. Not a sound.
Welp, better to be killed by whatever had killed her captor. She growled the pain and freedom bringing her previously absent rage to the foreground. Springing over to the one she had wounded what seemed like forever ago she leaped and landed on him, they crashed to the ground. Thrashing they rolled back and forth neither getting the upper hand. Her blood was making them both sticky but since she hadn't bled out by now she assumed it had missed her important vessels. The things face was now so close to her now she could count the whiskers and smell the horrid breath, bleach. One of her eyes twitched and that was the only warning buggy had before she slammed her own cranium into his. She crunched something but still that was hard and she saw stars for a bit. She shoved but the weight fell on her, a twin to the earlier blade was now stuck in the beasts neck. She gasped as the wind was smushed from her. She felt like she would break. Then a dark skinned foot appeared and shoved the bug off by his shoulder.
Strong hands lifted her up under her armpits and she was soon being brushed off smartly by a well muscled shifter with short silver hair. She shook her head trying to clear it, her neck stung and the shifter said "Don't, not until we get a look at your cut."
She froze and watched him. This could only be her instructor, she deflated visibly and would have fallen if he hadn't of steadied her again. "Now, now none of that. Your fine."
That wasn't the reason she had nearly fallen at all. She had nearly died, how could he ever consider her as a student now? She had been as good as dead in that battle. She hissed then as a tear made its way through the dirt and grime to sting the wound on her neck.
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Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2014 10:19 pm
"Aw Lass, don't fret." The shifter said and used his thumbs to clear her eyes. "Your not the first one who has seen the bad side of a couple dretch let me tell you. They are not my favorite beings either."
His sympathy cracked her, she just couldn't take any more flashfire emotions. She started wailing, and he arched an eyebrow at her, shrugged and started to wet down a white cloth with a canteen. As she heaved and sobbed standing as straight as she could before him, he gently wiped the dirt away from her wound. Then he wiped off her face too. "You are lucky they were not mages, most of them are. These two being sword masters together is quite rare." He patted her shoulder awkwardly and she finally croaked out some words between hiccups.
"I ..still.. shamed myself. I-I couldn't beat them off.. I was...too... scared." She dug the heels of her hands into her eyes. "...should have been smarter..."
He pulled her hands away and she looked into his stern face. "Nonsense, you are no more then a prentice and have not seen one of them before, these were not wimpy soldiers your lucky to have been alive."
She sulked..."Wouldn't have been if not for you." she grumbled to the ground.
"If there is one thing I have learned youngun, it is that no battle is over until one of the combatants is annialated or forfeits, you had done neither so don't put yourself down. Smarten up. We have work to do don't we." He placed his hands on his hips. "You have come to learn the sword."
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Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2014 10:21 am
Her instructor said his name was Nios and he looked like he could easily weather a storm just by standing still. He had since recovered the blades from the bodies. She tried not to drool over them too much, they ere immaculate, beautiful and deadly, especially in his hands as she had seen first hand.
"Now if you have steadied up enough I think it best if we move to the meeting place, you must have been a little off on your direction, you over shot it by quite a ways to end up in this nasty place. One knows there is something wrong when not even trees will grow here, I often wonder what it is about this place that does such a good job of killing such strong beings."
Iroia shrugged, she had not looked that far into it, having only been here for a short time, she hadn't gotten much further beyond that tell tale creepy sensation before the Dretch had interupted all thoughts of the forest.
"Well you are a bit young for such philosophies and I don't begrudge you the fire of youth. I invite you next time you see something odd to take a good look and think about it, you never know what you might find out."
She blinked, "Usually when I find something new I don't slow down very much. The last time I tried talking first, I got insulted."
"Not everyone is going to be like that. A swordmaster needs speed and power yes, but in order to achieve a more balanced life you should also think about things and slow down occasionally, experience more fully the things you might pass by in a rush otherwise."
"For example, here on the edge of the Dead Wood this sapling is half sick. I'm not sure, as I said before, what causes the mortality but I do know that this little tree did not chose to be here. He looked ecpectantly at her and her eyebrows drew down in thought. He expected her to do something... Iroia looked at the Dead Wood then at the healthy forest a few steps away. Deciding to act she scooped her hand under the tiny tree's root ball and lifted, she walked a ways into the healthy forest and looked back at Nios. He nodded and lifted his eyes up to the canopy and focused on a hole that would let light in when the sun finally penetrated the overcast sky. Iroia tilted her head up too and then proceeded to dig a hole for the seedling where the light would touch it. She felt something deep inside that she would have to examine later. For now Nios smiled and they made their way to the original meeting place, which was much nicer then the Dead Wood.
Right before she started her true training she though to herself " Who knew I would learn so much before I actually started training?"
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Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2014 10:23 am
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Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2014 12:11 pm
Class Quest Result
Pass!
Iroia has passed and received a rank of Swordsman!
Congratulations Iroia!
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