As the Two Sisters Watched(into the breech)

[alsih2o]

Sweat built up quickly on her hairy upper lip as soon as she saw the glowing brand. Her pudgy, unattractive face was helpless to hide her excitement as the brand hissed and bubbled into the shoulder of the feral boy kneeling before her outstretched hands.

“In the name of Balcla, the sun, the runner, the bringer I bless you and name you freed”

Thabyra had seen quite a few men branded, but this was the first time she had been in charge, and she liked it. The respite form the daily duties as a scribe felt good, but the burning…that sweet smell, and the light…..

Rinney watched the brand bite into the shoulder of Ry and tried to feel he was doing the right thing. 15 days on the road and none of his companions had outed him as a wizard; none had even indicated that they might know his secret. Now he found himself in the hall of The Shield itself, buying this slaves freedom and representing Papa Mac, an outlaw leading a band of misfits in honor of the state. This had to be some special kind of suicide.

Ry tried to put on a brave face as he felt the heat of the brand approach his shoulder, but when the cool damp flesh sated the heat he cried out in a way that betrayed his nature. The cry went deep into the fresh stone walls of the keep. The small man holding the brand had been through this routine at least one thousand times, but this was the first time his flesh had crawled…and he wondered if he could go so casually to mark any animal again, now that he had heard a man make these sounds, sounds unlike any he had heard from a beast.

Fin winced as the barbarian on the ground growled out a scream, but it was a short pause in his scan of the room. How could the sufferings a man becoming free draw his attention from the finery and baubles of this palace? And how would he walk out of here without taking just a few along?

As each of them watched the ritual Kolindra stared towards the man without seeing him, her mind full of vision of the scythe, and her return to the grove.

 

[Ruined]

Looks very interesting. Please, continue.

 

[alsih2o]

Eventually the pain subsided and Ry stood, craning his neck awkwardly to try and see how much of his tattoo the brand had erased. He had carried this mark on his shoulder since the second anniversary of his birth and had always had this constant reminder of his enslavement. He wondered if the feeling of freedom would outlast the searing pain.

Back in their quarters in the great palace Rinney hoped they would have very little need for money before leaving the city, buying the freedom of his new friend had cost him greatly, but he was sure this man was a hero in the making. Ever since he had first seen the man, surrounded by wild dogs and fighting for his life, he had felt known. Soon after Ry had made an incredible leap, flinging himself off the muddy bank of the river and onto the undulating surface of the collapsing ferry to rescue the 2 trapped children. He had nearly died that day, and all of his actions were made without pause…and all for the children of a man he did not even know.

And Kolindra, appearing mysteriously from the woods right when he had needed her, surely that was a sign from the Sisters. What were the odds that she would leave her grove for the first time ever as he passed? Or against her arriving in time to save the hairshirted holy men he had met?

Fin was another one. The fact that in an open country this large he had seen the one item Kolindra searched for, that golden scythe. Not only had he seen it, but had for some reason marked the man who had it in his mind, the man with no nose.

He had gifted them both with the charms provided by Papa Mac, marking them as Heroes of Maissen. They served the state now, and served at the same time Papa Mac and his hometown of Vaunth-on-the-lake.

They would come before The Shield in the morning to accept their commission- a thief, an outlaw wizard, a half-feral former slave and young girl who had never been out of the woods. He wondered if they would be hailed as heroes or imprisoned. On the eve of what should be the greatest day of their lives none of the party slept well. The next day they would be the beginning of their quest to affect the lives of everyone in Maissen, but tonight they felt like so much flotsam, awash on a powerful tide.

 

[alsih2o]

if all goes well my players should be adding in "journal entry" type writing here, as the story progresses.

i am asking them to remain in character for their postings, and encourage readers to question them and me

thanks for taking the time,.

mark (alsih2o)

 

[willpax]

The religion and culture that lurk in the background here seem rather interesting. I look forward to reading more.

 

[Kolindra]

Looking around the room the she was forced to share with all of her new friends, she sighed. All of them are male and no one in this place had any idea that she might have wanted a place to rest where there are more women around or more privacy. Sighing again she shrugged again and thought to herself “It isn’t that I don’t mind not having any privacy, it is just that I don’t know these people well yet and we are stuck together and every one expects me to not feel uncomfortable around them.”

Soon she noticed that every one was using a metal tub to clean themselves off and she thought to herself that outlanders are very strange and why do they not just go to the lake outside and bathe. She must have spoken her thoughts aloud because every one was soon giving her strange looks and the servant almost fainted. She said “What? There is a nice large lake out there to bathe in.” Her new friends started to explain to her that it just isn’t done and she gave up and agreed with them for now, even though she didn’t agree. After they strung up a divider of cloth for her privacy she slipped into the tub and felt silly laying in it, but soon she washed and quickly dried herself off.

After dressing back in her clothing, they then wanted to measure her and the rest of her friends for clothing to wear to some feast and some important meeting. Again she sighed and started to wonder if all this was part of the plan of her elders and the spirits. She had no idea when she was asked, nay commanded, to leave the grove that she would be doing these things. It was supposed to be so easy, just find the scythe and return to the grove. Bah next time she met with the elders they would hear her thoughts, even if they did not like what she had to say.

Disdaining the two other choices of clothing, she told the servant that she would wear the leather outfit, but only if it is green and brown in color. Soon her old clothes were taken away to be washed and mended and she was dressed in this outfit that was made for the feast.

Looking at her friend and companion, Ryssa. She moved over to her and started to feed her the scraps of meat that someone brought up from the kitchen. “Ryssa is a good girl, isn’t she? Yes, we are far from home and you behave yourself while mommy is gone right? Yes, I know you will. When mommy leaves the room you will guard the room.” The wolf stares at friend and seems to be smiling at her. Kolindra laughs and finishes feeding her friend.

 

[Kolindra]

I grew up in the wilds, in a small grove of druids, shamans, rangers and other nature priests. Our home and way of life are cyclic much like the seasons and we enjoy what nature gives us and renews every year.

Living in the grove has shaped me differently then those who live in a large town or city. All of the adults have a hand teaching the children the things they might need as they get older. No one child was more special then another, even if the child was a birthed by one of the elders. Also we tend to be not as modest as those from the cities and towns, at least not when we are among each other. When we are away from home though we are as modest as the outlanders are. Walking among those who live in the grove it would come as a shock to many when at least half of the adults and children are without clothing. Of course in the winter we are always usually dressed, we are not stupid enough to walk around in the cold with no clothing on.

For now I am just on a hunt to return one of our sacred items back to the grove or our spring ritual will not be able to take place and we might fall on hard times if we anger the spirits, and without it we will not be able to harvest the crop of mistletoe and other plants that we need for our spells and rituals.

My friend Ryssa was given to me a pup. I raised and trained her since then and she is a loyal friend and companion of mine. She isn’t a pet, as many of these outsiders seem to think. She can leave any time she wants to, but for now she has decided to stay with me.

Many of our rites and rituals I guess would be considered barbaric to those who live in the civilized lands. We still practice the old ways and rites. Many of these rites have to do with pleasure and the joys of the body. Almost all of us in the grove can see the spirits of the land but only a handful in the grove can talk back with them and receive answers. I was told that I might have that spark but for now it lies dormant until I find a willing teacher to help me unlock it.

Each season we have feasts and rites that help bring changes to the world so that the seasons will continue. The spring celebration of course is usually the most wild and many babies are born nine months after that rite. Harvest rite is when we honor our dead and renew the protections again the restless dead and this is also when we try to find any of the restless dead who might be around the forest and the grove and send them back to their grave.

Winter rite is usually a somber affair to try to help being in the spring season. While summer rite is when most of our weddings take place and it is also another happy time.


Kolindra’s Description

I wear brown calf length boots and a pair of breeches that are also brown in color. A light green belt is belted across my waist and it keeps my dark green shirt tucked into my breeches. I also wear a black cloak that falls to my ankles and it has a brown hood that when pulled over my head covers my face in shadow.

My black hair is grown a bit past my shoulders and I usually keep it unbound. I have the reddish brown skin tone of my mixed ancestors. As are my eyes.

Hanging on my belt is a dagger that is mostly used for skinning animals, cutting flowers and other plants, and as a last resort as a means of defense. I keep my spears, when they are not in use, strapped across my back so that they criss cross each other. I tuck my sling into the other side of my belt. My leather armor is usually only worn when there is a need for it, and it has been decorated with etchings of leaves, and has rocks, stones, shells, beads, and other items tied to it.

Starting on the back of my hands and then leading up my arms are a pair of tattoos. They are of tribal markings that start off as a circle that inverts on itself and then opens up into many different lines as the tattoos travel up my arms and then stop at my shoulders.

 

[Prothall]

Origins of Rinney

As Rinney walked down the road to Vaunth-on-the-Lake with Fespa the Academic shining from behind is left shoulder, he reflected on how he came to be there...


Some twenty-two years ago, Rinney Flanagan had become the most recent addition to his rather small noble house; despite ties to original founders of the state of Maissen, house Flanagan had never gained much in the way of land or resources from the aborigines, nor had they risen high in the hierarchy imposed on the indigenous peoples of the land. The only land they have controlled is the city of Ten Soldiers, so named because of the story of how ten of the founders of Maissen managed to hold off over one hundred barbarians for a week without one casualty. The land they defended was granted to them by the leader of the original founders, Maissen, and the soldiers chose Flanagan to be their leader.

In his life, Rinney never left the walls of Ten Soldiers, though his father had often taken him hunting in the royal forest. Rinney, however, did not enjoy the hunt; he was not particularly skilled with the bow or the spear. Despite this, Cormac Flanagan could not accept a son with no training in weapons, and so had Rinney well schooled in the use of the foil, which he took to more easily. As a natural part of his basic training, the weapons-master also taught him use of the dagger, staff, and a few other simple weapons.

Between the training sessions his father forced upon him, Rinney often went to the keep's library, where his uncle lived and worked, compiling histories and keeping the large collection of books in good shape. Here Rinney would wander among the shelves for hours, entranced by the look and feel of the books nearly as much as by what was inside them. His favorites were the stories of the beginning of the earth, when Simus the north star created his daughters, the moons Fespa and Kalin, to assist him in the weaving of the greatest tale upon the slate which is the earth, and of other tales from long ago. But it was not long before Rinney found books that interested him even more - books on magic. They showed how by a series of gestures and syllables, one could give the magic inherent in nature form. The earliest of these Rinney discovered contained only simple tricks, such as could be accomplished by sleight of hand perhaps even more easily than by magic. Later, Rinney found books with more complex spells in them - it often took him a week to understand the simplest of them, but he was delighted by the results. He took particular interest in spells of illusion - even though the ones he understood allowed him to create only silent phantasms, he was fascinated by the degree of control he had over the images - anything he could imagine could be made almost real by his mere thoughts! He often used his ability with illusions to help him in his other hobby - woodcarving. By creating an image of what he wished to carve, he could work out any problems he might experience in carving beforehand.

But even as his interest and abilities grew, so did his fear of being discovered - for even the smallest child hears of Idien, the traitorous brother of Maissen, who was exiled after using his arcane magic to lose his youngest brother, Lastel, in a swamp. Since that time, the learning of magic by those not gifted by the moons or lands has been forbidden, and were Rinney discovered it would bring eternal shame on his house.

Rinney knew that he could not continue to live in the keep, as he could not forever keep his magic secret from his father while under the same roof. So he had claimed to have a desire to see the world, and his father had wished him well and given him supplies for his travels; a rapier, some food, and several pieces of gold. Before leaving the city of Ten Soldiers, Rinney used some of his funds to buy himself some daggers and a fine set of woodcarving tools, but did not linger long in the city he was heir to.


And so came Rinney, after crossing the ferry at Kern, to the road towards Vaunth-on-the-Lake. It was a large city, and when he was close enough to see the extent of its walls, the height of its gates, and the number of people streaming into the gates, he gaped like some awestruck clodhopper. He got no few looks while entering the city, for his pale founder skin clearly contrasted with that of the native churkeys and the many people of mixed descent. After procuring a room at the Flagon and Sword, he walked through the streets of well-packed dirt to the merchant district. It was not hard to find with all the people hawking wares, each shouting to be heard above the others. Rinney, finding an open spot of dirt near the end of the street where the merchants were, sat down and pulled out from his pack some carvings he hoped to sell. He left his pack, open, on the ground beside him, and stood up to offer his wares to those who wanted them.

He had not had many customers before some of the city guards came up the street and spied him. One of them yelled to him, "Hey, you!" Rinney looked around, wondering if the guard had actually called to him, and if so, why. He noticed something that filled him with dread -in leaving his pack open he had exposed his spellbooks! Everyone knew wizards learned their craft from books, and no simple woodcarver carried books. Rinney, knowing he had been spotted, grabbed his pack and what carvings he could and dashed down one of the many branching side streets leading away form the marketplace.

As Rinney fled down the alleyway, boots flinging dust and dirt behind him, he heard the guards yelling, "Stop, stop!" As he looked behind him to see how far a lead he had on the guards, he was unpleasantly surprised by an aged but wiry arm that caught him round the chest and shoved him into a stone house. The aged, rather odd-looking man held a finger to his lips and stepped out into the street with a broom, brushing away some imaginary garbage from his back step.

The guards came running down the lane, but suddenly stopped and drew themselves up, addressing the old man reverently. "Good Afternoon, Sir Mackson. We're terribly sorry to disturb you-"

"...Terribly sorry" interrupted the other guard, looking at his feet and kicking imaginary rocks.

"But you haven't happened to see a tall, skinny chap running through here with a pack, have you? We were about to ask him if he had his permit from the merchant's guild, but he jumped up and ran off down the alley when we called to him. Have you seen him?"

"Ooooh, I can't say I have, laddy." Mackson said in a trembling voice. "But I'm not sure. These eyes and ears are so old, why, I didn't notice ye till ye stopped. Maybe he turned off down the way."

"We'll apprehend the offender immediately, yourhonorMisterMacksonSir." The guard said, finishing in a rush as he dashed back the way he came, he and his fellow tripping over each other in their effort to "apprehend the offender".

"Good luck, laddies!" Mackson called to the swift receding guards.

Turning back inside, he addressed Rinney. "Now, young chap, what is this business with the guards?"

"Well, you see... well..."

"How about you start at the beginning, eh?"

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

I'm subscribed, Clay! Good start, very interesting.

 

[alsih2o]

Fifteen boys in velvet marked the end of the walk down the long hallway. They chatted idly amongst themselves until they heard the approach, then they stood brightly and made an effort not to make eye contact with the approaching crowd.

At the head of the crowd was Rinney, dressed in his best, with Kolindra, Ry and Finn in close step. As they approached the massive wooden doors wunst, their “handler” addressed them one last time.

“Do not be nervous, just answer their questions as they ask them and do not speak unless spoken to. These are very important men but they respect what you are about to do.”

The tall doors swung open with a grace that defied their size and the massive hall lay spread open before them. The party caught sight first of the 9 robed men behind the table, each had a bearing to hold a room on his own and together they seem to warp gravity itself around themselves. The shock of seeing and being seen by the council began to set in as it became apparent they were not in front of a wall but a huge boat.

The hulking vessel squatted heavily in the center of the room like a contented sow, most people spent quite sometime amazed at its presence in the room before noticing that it hung in the air, less than 6 inches off the floor.

Rinney took in the whole of the scene form the council and their scribes, one for each member, to the massive boat and arching stonework that embraced it until forming a roof high over its main mast and his mind drifted back to his start…..

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mackson turned the letter over in his hands again. The fine vellum had yellowed from all his handling and still he was conflicted. He had always been a champion of the Churkey, even as a young man and now, now with the added pressures of the rebellion in the swamplands why would the town call on him?
Perhaps the were trying to embarrass him, trying to prove that he couldn’t put together a team…prove he was just an old windbag who was no longer capable. Each man chosen to represent a town as an elder was required to put together a crew to prove his wisdom. But each man who was called was chosen knowing that he would tip his balance in his choices towards Founders, people who looked like heroes.

Now, with every pure Founder family in the city suspicious of him they had called on him to join them. How was he supposed to put together an expeditionary crew when he had noone of pure race to lead it? Perhaps both Fespa and Kalin were guarding him this day, for a boy of pure race had stumbled into him today. The boy slept upstairs now, glad to be safe from the city watch, but Mackson had plans to send him someplace much more dangerous.

“Surely the sisters watch my hand, and Balcla has delivered this boy to me….it is the will of the luminaries themselves” he said..to noone but the books on his shelves.



The next afternoon he had his manservant bring the boy to him, for if the gods were ever going to guide his hand, it would be now.

“Boy, you are a purebred, a Founder in all your lines, and that is about to serve you well, as I have a task that I believe you can perform that will leave you without worries for the town guard”

Rinney looked he old man over, grateful but cautious as he continued.

“As you surely know, when a man is chosen to serve on his city’s board of elders he must prove himself by securing a force, an expedition, into the wastes. In my…unusual circumstances this ha become difficult, but I believe the Sister have blessed me with your arrival.”

Rinney tried to speak confidently, but the seriousness of the situation was upon him.

“I have enjoyed your hospitality, and will gratefully help you as I can Honorable Mackson”

“Call me Papa Mac, all who know me do. I have these,” he said, drawing forth 6 necklaces “to give to heroes. Each person who wears one will be known as a Hero of Maissen, and will bear the honor and responsibility to breech the wastes and prove himself, and in doing so prove to the Shield my worth. I believe that the sisters have guided you into my hands for this purpose, and I call on you to take up this service. If you do so I may have others who can assist you, possibly making you a rich man in the process.”

Rinney felt flush with certainty and extended his hand as Papa Mac continued.

“Wear the one with the sister’s image on it, and go to Maissen, it is 15 days by road and I am sure the Sisters will yield companions to you on your path, but choose wisely for much depends on it.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------