Welcome to Gaia! ::

Welcome to the wild forests of the world!
Here, expect to run into many dangers and great rewards!
Before you begin, I have a couple reminders: Everyone in the party is allowed to post for roleplaying purposes; however, only the party leader may roll the dice. Do not roll again until a Crew Member has confirmed and told you with the outcome of your roll. We will Quote you here. Once the encounter is over, you may roll again. After the six hour mark, your party will either be forced to return to the kingdom, or you may set up camp and possibly spark an enemy encounter. The longer you stay in the forests, the greater the risk but also the reward. If you think you may have a hard time with the next roll or wish to turn back, you may do so at any time.
Thank you so much time, and we wish you the best of luck!

~Rowan~

Rowan had not bothered to follow Blake into the building she entered earlier, preferring to stand watch out side of the building and guard it from any potential threat to his Mage. He also did not feel like interacting with her at all very much, especially considering their current situation and her disregard for whether or not he wanted to train the bloke that was now following them around. It had seemed that his sass was finally starting to grate on the poor girl's nerves and she would soon be at her breaking point when it came to Rowan. Rowan, of course, was mean by nature and would not let up on his sass... but he maybe could tone it down just a smudge if they were going to be walking around the forest together. That was especially so since he needed to be as quiet as possible, the same as them, if they did not want to attract every single monster in the forest to them. So having sassy arguments in the middle of the forest that could potentially blow up into shouting wars was definitely a bad idea for all of them. Just the idea of being assaulted by every creature under the sun because none of them could keep their heads straight irritated him slightly. This situation is also irritating. So is that guy. So is Blake. What isn't irritating!? Rowan thought to himself, gritting his teeth into a slight snarl before looking down into his hand.

His pendant sat in his hand, the man having not returned it to his neck during his earlier encounter. Just the sight of it made him swell with all sorts of emotions, but he had to keep those in check or else he might find himself breaking down like Blake. His sister had been his world, he had given everything up for her after his parents had passed away. And now she was being raised by that minotaur and her family, by royalty. She was being given a life that he could never have fashioned for her himself... yet he felt all the more depressed and angry about all of it. Just why could he not be a part of her life!? It angered him, frustrated him, and the only outlet he had for all of this pent-up aggression was fighting or mocking Blake. He did not like constantly berating the poor girl that was his Mage, but what choice did he have!? Not only did he have to keep her as distant as possible, but he needed to find some way to get rid of all his aggression or else he might just explode and hurt someone. The thought of it burned his mind, making him blink away the anger that was welling up. His sister was gone, that was the truth. Whether or not he wanted to accept it, that was another story. He may be able to watch her grow up from afar... but there was no way he could ever raise her like he used to do. There was no way he would ever have a family again.

With a sigh, quelling the building anger, he placed a hand on Blake's back and pushed her forward as he continued walking, not breaking his stride at all. He kept her slightly held with his hand so that she did not fall over, but just enough to make sure that she would move forward with him while he walked. There was a certain confidence, strength in his demeanor that sort of said, "you'll be fine" as he walked. He did not say anything to her, of course, but it was merely an attempt to get her to realize that there was nothing frightening about the outside, about the unexplored region. At least, there would not be as long as he was there with her. After about two steps, however, he quickly let go of her and continued walking forward, wanting her to keep walking of her own accord if she was going to go along with him. After all, she needed to make up her mind about this whole situation. She needed to want to explore this place if she was going to survive out there. All Rowan could do for her was give her a nudge, a slight push, even a look to make her move along and walk alongside him. That was all she should need to want to learn more about new lands, explore new regions of the world. Regardless, the only one that should ever be afraid of this place was Rowan. After all, he had died outside these walls.

It did not take long to make it to the forest from where they had departed. At most it had been an hour's trip, something that Rowan did not care too much for. After all, it was an hour with his Mage and Romeo, and neither of them were in his good graces currently. His mood, however, picked up immediately upon coming to the entrance to the forest. "What the?" Rowan murmured as he knelt down and picked up a large bag of gold coins. His eye twitched slightly as he looked at the bag of gold, his face almost unchanging as he stared at it for a moment. "Guess that's that." Rowan stated, strapping the huge bag of cash onto his belt and moving on into the forest, acting like nothing remotely fortunate had happened. He did not even want to acknowledge the fact that he had just picked up a huge chunk of gold before the adventure had even started. For one, it was something that made almost no sense to him. Second, there was no way that this occurrence boded well for any of the party that was involved. Any fortune at the beginning of an adventure was quickly followed by great misfortune. And that was something that Rowan did not want any part of.

"You two can talk or whatever you want, but if you start shouting or get too loud then everything in this forest will come to chow down on you. So it's in your best interest to not be yapping the entire time we're in here. Otherwise you might all end up dead." Rowan stated to the two of them, trying to get them to see what kind of situation they were in inside of the forest. "Also, there's no telling what's in here. This whole place has yet to be mapped out, so we might run into villages, monsters you've never seen before, or another bag of gold. It just depends. So try to keep calm if we come across something particularly nasty." Rowan stated to the two of them in a rather uncaring town. The demeanor he gave off, however, was that of a squad leader in a platoon. His time as a soldier had greatly affected his personality in this regard, and he was finding himself treating the two of them like they were soldiers in his squad rather than what they actually were. Whether Blake found this change in tone strange or not, Rowan would keep his pace as he climbed through the forest, trying his best to keep an eye on the area around them. He did not want to deal with anything too annoying today. If he had to, however, he would destroy it as best he could.

~Rowan~

"I know who got Gram. And I also know who decided that leaving the city was a bad idea over since she got scared of being swarmed by monsters after she got Gram. So while you may not be totally useless, you sure do act like you are." Rowan threw some comments back at her, seeing how well she could handle a minute-level of sass coming from him. After all, she might have gotten way too frustrated with him earlier, and he really did not feel like setting her off on some rampage while they were in the middle of a monster-infested forest. When she addressed the other man, however, he completely ignored what she was saying, opting to pay attention to their surrounding area rather than try and understand their newfound and unwanted companion. Just why was she trying to get to know this guy anyway? Was she seriously thinking about giving in to the council's demands? She was not even getting paid to be this person's "mentor" or whatever she was supposed to be to him. Rowan was meant to train him after all, and he was not even addressed in the letter nor acknowledged by the guy. It all warranted a sigh from him, the young man trying to let the stress flow out of him.

Tye's story about wherever he was from was full of the usual stuff Rowan heard from adventurers and Knights. City destroyed, sole survivor or pretty close to it. Nothing he had not heard from other Knights before, or at least the little bits that he had bothered hearing. He was not paying too close attention after all. For the most part he was ignoring the guy and trying to focus on their surrounding area, making sure they would not be attacked. And it was about that time that he heard a loud thud on the ground nearby and the hissing of a spider. Great... my least favorite type of enemy. Even when you get a hold of them their poisonous. They're just annoying. Rowan thought to himself, gritting his teeth slightly as he thought about how annoying this creature was going to be. Then again, he had the perfect way to dispose of it rather easily, unlike in his previous life. That was right, there was hardly and difficulty to it at all since he had gained Gram. Oh.... the irritation, the anger and frustration, it all dissipated as he realized just how much fun he was about to have with this.

All he heard was a quick rustling before it appeared suddenly in mid-air, his eyes slowing everything down as it came into view. The creature was hoping from the side, just a ways in front of Blake and seemed like it was trying to go after her. Rowan, of course, being the closest to her since he was not trying to move to far ahead reacted almost instantly, using his peripherals rather than even acknowledging the arachnid by looking at it. The creature's mandibles landed squarely in the palm of his demonic arm's hand, the creature quickly trying to sink its fangs into his arm and moving its legs to try and pull away from him.... It did not work. The grip he had on it looked excruciatingly painful for the beast as he continued to walk forward like nothing had happened. The creature was not even able to pull away from his grasp as he continued moving, the young man keeping it alive as a smile played across his lips. "That's right... you can't bite through this. It completely armored, no plates, nothing to wriggle your fangs through. You're not that smart a creature, are you." He taunted, a venomous tone to his voice as he kept the squealing creature in his hand.

"Tch... this is boring." Rowan stated, fire erupting from the back of his hand and engulfing the creature as it cried shrilly, as if screaming to be let go. After barbecuing it for a few minutes he dropped it, the flames dying out as it hit the ground, a burnt mess. He did not even acknowledge what happened between him and the spider as the continued walking through the forest. Nor did he point out that Tye was too far away from Blake, which would have definitely left her open to being attacked by the spider. In fact, he did not seem to acknowledge anything at all as he continued to move forward, almost acting as if the last hour had not even occurred. The spider did not satiate him, but the prospect of stronger foes definitely did. "Remind me again why you were worried about this place, Blake?" Rowan asked her. This was probably the first time she had ever seen the flames erupt from Gram's hand, especially since she never watched him train to learn his abilities. Practically everything about his fighting capabilities was unknown to her.

~Rowan~

Tch! They're being so slow! Rowan thought to himself growing frustrated with how slow Blake was being with killing the wolves. This needed to end quickly, before any more monsters decided to attack them in the middle of this fight. I guess I don't really have a choice in the matter. I didn't want to make this obvious, but I have to keep these things from drawing more attention to us. He thought to himself, moving backwards, closer to Blake, and sighing as if calming himself. His eyes were closed momentarily as he collected himself, seeming to try and get himself into some sort of mindset. At this, the wolf pack turned their attention towards the man that had so brutally slaughtered three of there members so quickly and charged forth. This however, was something Rowan could handle, all of it. It was time to display his natural-born abilities to a reasonable degree, not their full potential obviously. "Get back and stay out of my way!" He stated, hoping that the other two would listen to him. After all, he did not want them to get caught up in the crossfire.

One of he wolves charged at him, intending to chow down on his arm after he spoke to them. Unfortunately for it, the creature was met with his blade, the sword lobbing its head off. In the same instant another wolf had approached him from behind but found itself cleaved in half, its front body bisected from the rest as if he had cut it, but his sword never swung in that direction. A slash seemed to have basically materialized out of nowhere and done the job for him. In the same movement he spun his body grabbing a hold of one wolf's head and squeezing the life from its face while another wolf was punched by the same hand in a different location, caving its face into its neck and killing it at the same time. With the body in hand, he swung the dead wolf's body into the ground, smashing it open-palmed and another wolf dropped dead, finding its body also being smashed into the ground. Finally, his movement coming to an end, he gave a somewhat graceful spin and cleaved the final wolf diagonally, another cut appearing coming from the other angle and separating the creature into four different pieces, not including a few of the legs that had gotten caught up in the cut and been removed by it.

Rowan merely straightened his body up and sheathed his blade, his body covered in blood from the onslaught he had brought to the creatures. In a matter of seconds he managed to kill the rest of the pack, never breaking pace, never wasting a movement. Instead, he simply stood there with a stoic face, the even having hardly fazed him. After a few moments, however, he wiped blood of his cheek using his right sleep and turned towards Blake, his expression almost entirely the same as usual. "You okay princess? We need to keep moving before the blood attracts more monsters." He stated to the young woman, acting as if the slaughtering of the creatures had not happened, as if the last few moments had not happened. He was not even acknowledging his strange ability that had not even been brought up between him and Blake. It was one thing for him to suddenly use an ability Gram was capable of, but surely this would perturb her ever-so-slightly. "If you want one of their pelts then drag it behind us, but we're not stopping to skin them right now." He stated to the girl, and slightly towards Tye at this point. They could not afford to waste time with the wolves' pelts right now, but they could definitely remove them later. Tch... I hate these things... Rowan thought to himself as he started to make his way through the forest once again.

~Rowan~

Rowan was making his way through the forest when his Mage addressed him once again, asking him what it was that he had just done. Her comment about the blood on him from earlier had hardly fazed him, meriting simply a shrug from the young man before he had continued on. He was hoping that it had been a hint not to talk to him about what happened, yet here she was asking him what he had done while they were fighting. There was no real point in hiding it now, however, as she had already seen his ability firsthand. "What was it? I wonder... huh." He muttered to himself before letting out a loud sigh, the man shaking the blood from Gram's hand and looking back towards her. "When I died.... I saw the world. I saw everything. And in that "everything" I gained a vast amount of knowledge. That knowledge, for the most part, left me when you brought me back to life. But I was left with a "truth" to the world. That "truth" is what you saw earlier. That the world is nothing but something we perceive, and that perception can be altered and changed. The best way to describe it, is that I can distort space and time. That's how I can do stuff like this." Rowan stated, suddenly he was in two places at once and then he was in his original spot again.

He was able to make himself exist in two places at once, to bend space and time to allow for him to both be to her left and right. "It's nothing I gained from you, it's my own strength... and the only thing I can call my own. It's not something that can be replicated easily either. I'm pretty sure it extends beyond my current use of it as well." Rowan told her, trying to explain his power to the poor young woman. His tone showed absolute disinterest in the topic, however, as he spoke. In fact, he was acting like the existence of this power was not a big deal at all, that nothing was different from how it was before. Yet, he had kept this strength hidden from the girl, much like the power to control fire. At this point, it should have been obvious to the poor girl that her Knight had a bag full of tricks that he just was not willing to share with her, or was simply not because he saw no need to share them. "The only thing you need to know is that I can be in two places at once, and that's that." He stated to her, trying to dumb it down for her while simultaneously showing his usual sass.

It was about that time that they came across a troop of from Eldrin, luckily. They took a shine to Rowan almost immediately, the man giving off a rather soldier-ish aura as he was covered in blood and had Gram. To them, he would probably have been some kind of hero in their society, but in Carmillion he was despised for much less than this. He was still short and curt like usual, but they deemed it fit to inform him that they had noticed some treasure deeper in the forest. They, of course, did not want to get involved with it as it was much more dangerous further in the forest. Rowan, however, wanted to travel as far as he possibly could. "Thanks for the tip, I'll go check it out." He stated rather uncaring, continuing down the path of the forest. After separating from the troops, he turned back towards Blake and spoke to her with a rather indifferent tone. "That's why I prefer Eldrin to Carmillion. At least there I'm furniture that's celebrated, instead of all my accomplishments being attributed to you." He stated to the young woman rather shortly, still sore that nothing he had done up to this point had made any sort of name for himself.

Whether Blake responded or not, he would continue along the path that the troops had directed him in until he found the treasure they spoke of. It was a well-made long sword, something that he probably would have appreciated if it was not for the fact that he possessed Gram. "Well then... I guess I can just keep it on me... or give it to you." He stated, looking over at Blake. Yeah, that was probably the best idea for now considering she had such a shoddy weapon. But.... he doubted that she could even swing the sword, much less wield it effectively. "I think I'll keep this on me for now..." He stated, looking Blake directly in the eyes as he spoke. He then made sure to pick the sword up with his right hand and attach it to his belt. It was curious how he refused to touch swords with his left hand, most curious even. If she ever found out about that... who knows how bad she would flip out at me. She thought Gram was the Armament that she had found, but its strength comes from the fact that it makes Balmung... He thought to himself. Overall, Gram was probably the best Armament he could have asked for.

The arm not only acted like a symbiotic parasite, but also served to create the dragon-slaying sword, Balmung. Additionally, it gave him an anti-dragon attribute that made creatures related to them worthless in a fight against him and even served to frighten them off. His greatest strength was that he could take on the strongest creatures in the world, dragons. The arm was even starting to alter his body over the course of having it. Who knows what this thing's going to do to me in the future. He thought to himself, picking up his pace and walking through the forest once more. He made sure to stick by Blake's side so that he could protect her from any threats.