Segev Stormlord
GM, 239 posts
Mon 8 Aug 2011
at 01:14 | Traveling with FalaniansThe farmers and their families were freed and allowed to return to their homes within the day. Most of Sir Clavien's guardsmen went with them, though some were understandably unwilling to wait for this escort made up of their former captors. There were some heated arguments amongst families, especially those of three girls who seem to be flirting with some of the Falanian guardsmen. One will have a long while to continue that argument, as her beau is one of Clavien's men, but the other two have chosen to travel to Falan with the knights and the Trademeet delegates.
Fire and Ocean Soul find much in common with the knights' squires, and young Nathier - the studious and hard-working boy who keeps Sir Vaniel's equipment shining like new - is proving eager for the slightly older kids' friendship.
Clavien and Methius remain proper and polite knights, while Vaniel's stuffiness and vanity are easily seen to be covering a nervous hope that he is living up to some unknown shoes he feels he has to fill. He is also far less subtle than he thinks he is about his infatuation with Beatrix. Methius, strangely, seems to warm up to Merlin, warrior to warrior.
It will take nearly a week to make it in to Castle Oredol, home of Duke Amaran. This will be the first stop, though it is Duke Lothus of Watch Hill who is the final destination according to the knights' itinerary. Of course, the King of Falan lies further East, while Watch Hill is north of Oredol.
Nathier is enjoying a brief and rare period where he has no work to do, talking with Freverick as they ride. However, when Sevastian begins his nephew's latest lesson on butlery and service, Nathier is eagerly listening, as well. "How do you know what your master wishes before he voices it, Mister Sevastian?" he asks at one point. "Do you have to be Dragonblooded to be that good at being a squire?"
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Merlin
player, 146 posts
Thu 11 Aug 2011
at 04:50 | Re: Traveling with FalaniansFrom time to time Merlin disappears for an hour or so here and there. He always comes back, but rarely says anything unless spoken to.
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Segev Stormlord
GM, 242 posts
Sat 13 Aug 2011
at 14:54 | Re: Traveling with FalaniansIn his rangings, Merlin finds that marking where the wilderness ends and Falan begins is relatively easy. Farmland in regular, cut squares quilts the low hills once the kingdom's lands begin. Tiny thorpes of six to eight one-room cottages or even fewer large houses that initially seem bafflingly drab for their size (but which one might eventually determine are a sort of communal dormitory) lie at the center of enormous stretches of such farmland, though no more than a quarter-day's walk out from them. Every two days' walk or so, a thorpe has swelled to a proper village of perhaps a hundred people. These actually have small keeps nearby, presumably where the local landed knight dwells. Paths link fields to thorpes and thorpes to villages, while the paths of compressed dirt leading to the keeps nearly qualify as poor-quality roads.
The only town of any note surrounds a castle in the distance; this is likely Duke Amerin's seat at Oredol. Still, each of those villages along the way likely has an inn, which will make travel a bit more comfortable when the knights and the delegation from Trademeet get into Falan proper.
The whole thing looks almost eerily peaceful from the air. Farmers work in ones and twos scattered about their lords' vast feudal lands, maintaining crops as best they can. Rarely, Merlin spies a lordling or knight traveling from one keep to another, usually with an entourage.
After a few days, Merlin becomes aware of one particular young guardsman, wearing Methius's colors, who persistently tries to follow him when he goes ranging. He has neither managed to do so successfully (horseback is no match for Wings of the Raptor), nor said anything to Merlin when the Solar returns, yet.
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Merlin
player, 147 posts
Sat 13 Aug 2011
at 17:26 | Re: Traveling with FalaniansOnce Merlin becomes aware of his follower he will fly only about a quarter hour out and roost upon a tree stump overlooking a particularly well tended field. He waits for the young guardsman to catch up to him and when he does he says in a raspy voice,
"So you have finally caught up with me. What will you do now?"
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Segev Stormlord
GM, 243 posts
Tue 16 Aug 2011
at 17:50 | Re: Traveling with FalaniansSurprised to see the mysterious flying man waiting for him, the guardsman pulls his horse to a stop. "Now?" he asks, as if the question wasn't one he'd considered. "I suppose I will try to keep up." The boy can't be any older than Sir Vaniel, and is put off by having been confronted about trailing Merlin, though he's trying not to show it.
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Merlin
player, 148 posts
Tue 16 Aug 2011
at 21:14 | Re: Traveling with FalaniansIn reply to Segev Stormlord (msg #5):
"This was as far as I had intended to go today. So the question remains, what will you do now that you have caught up to me?"
Merlin's voice open and inviting a response. He hasn't changed position.
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Segev Stormlord
GM, 244 posts
Wed 17 Aug 2011
at 00:33 | Re: Traveling with Falanians"Accompany you back, I suppose," he says carefully. "And tomorrow, I will follow you again, as best I can. And again the next day. I would know where you go, and...and I want to be as great a warrior as you, so I can be a knight one day!"
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Merlin
player, 149 posts
Wed 17 Aug 2011
at 00:48 | Re: Traveling with FalaniansIn reply to Segev Stormlord (msg #7):
Merlin thinks on this for at least a full minute. Finally he says,
"If that is your ambition then it will become so given enough drive and discipline. My fighting abilities are derived through the Martial Arts, which can be exceptionally broad. Your knights seem to prefer long sharp swords. There are various Martial Arts that use swords, specifically paired hooked swords. Is this something that you would want to learn? Certainly without the gift of Exaltation you will not be able to match another Exalted in combat, but as a mortal you could become a great warrior."
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