Re: Prelude - Silence and the Sundering Sword
Maryam’s handshake is firm as well as she replies, “Thank you, and may the gods of the roads and the winds continue to favor you.”
After replenishing her supplies and exchanging farewells with Seerah, Alwar, and Zanya, Maryam appears to settle in to enjoy her time in Thousand Dragons. While enjoying a dinner of roast chicken and vegetables, she makes a few comments about being happy to have a few days to sleep in a real bed, to enjoy food that wasn’t cooked on the road, and to have a chance to spend a bit of time meditating. A few hours later, after spending a relaxing evening chatting with the other guards and travelers, playing cards, and drinking (though Maryam drinks far less than she appears to), Maryam heads first to the bath house for a hot bath and then up to her rooms to get some rest.
Several hours later, the city is dark and quiet and most of the inhabitants of the guild house are fast asleep. Maryam slips out of her room and quietly carries her bags down to the stable, exchanging a few words with Quiet Stream. Though not entirely happy about leaving a comfortable stable in the middle of the night, with just a bit of soothing from her rider, the sweet-tempered mare accepts the fact that they will be traveling by moonlight. Then, with just a hint of essence to mask her presence and hide her trail, Maryam quietly rides out of Thousand Dragons and into the night. [Private to GM: Trackless Passage Style is used. Soundless Action Prana and Distracting Breeze Meditation will be used if the situation warrents]
That night, Maryam only travels for an hour or so before finding a campsite hidden from the road where she spends her remander of the night. The next morning, she rises with the dawn and carefully naturalizes the site. She covers any scuffed areas with native materials, brushes out her footprints and those of the mare and rakes the matted grassy areas with a stick. Once that is complete, and she has eaten a cold breakfast, Maryam begins her journey to the City of the Steel Lotus, avoiding the main road and traveling through the wilderness.
Although the days she travels are long, starting with the dawn and extending well into the evening, Maryam is careful to set a pace that is comfortable for the horse, and to take sufficent breaks for the mare to rest and eat.
As she travels Maryam uses both her charms and her skills to hide her trail. During the day, in addition to regularly using Trackless Passage Style to hide her tracks, she either follows along animal paths or does her best to travel on durable terrain, such as rock, sand and gravel or durable vegetation such as grasses that are resistant to trampling. If during her travels, she notices that she is close to any other people, she makes use her other stealth charms to mask her presence.
Her meals are prepared well away from her campsites and are often either served cold or are simple one pot meals that require minimal preparation time and create little garbage. The cooking fires are kept small and are only allowed to burn for the time they are needed. The small pieces of wood are gathered over a wide area and collected from dead and downed branches. Maryam is careful to burn the wood to ash, soak it with water, and then scatter the ash and any unused wood over a large area to keep the sites looking as untouched as possible.
The campsites themselves are kept small, located at least 200 feet away from water, and placed on durable terrain with any organic litter such as leaves and lichen-coated rocks left in place as much as possible and any other cleared rocks, twigs, and other items replaced before she leaves. Campfires are only used in the evening if the night is cold enough to truly require it. On the other nights, Maryam simply uses her blanket for warmth and relies on the moonlight or heads to bed once it too dark to see clearly. In the mornings, she spends a bit of time naturalizing the camping grounds: covering scuffed areas, brushing out footprints, burying any trash, and just doing what is needed to make the campsite appear untouched.
Since she is traveling alone, Maryam spends many of her daylight hours practicing being more aware of the things surrounding her, smiling with satisfaction as she notices a small animal scurrying through the underbrush or hears the distant call of a cuckoo. Though it is usually late when she finishes setting up her camp for the night and caring for the mare, Maryam generally devotes an hour or so before sleeping to practicing various unarmed combat movements. After all, sometimes it can be handy to be able to deal with an opponent without drawing a weapon.
[Private to Storyteller: Thank you for the Christmas gift and I hope that you had a very pleasant Christmas, got to spend lots of time with loved ones, and received at least a few very cool gifts.
I would like for my Christmas charm to be the Elemental Concentration Trance.
Since it is a favored skill, I don’t think that increasing survival requires training time, so I would like to spend five points to increase it from 3 to 4. She is currently working on increasing awareness from 2 to 3 for four points and martial arts from 1 to 2 for two points. I’d also like to see about increasing resistance from 1 to 2 points for two points, but am not entirely sure how to role-play resistance training. I’ll save the other five points for now. Once I earn some more, I’ll probably start focusing on getting more charms. There are quite a few tempting ones.]
This message was last edited by the player at 05:34, Sun 27 Dec 2009.