Elias (the beginning)

At the age of fifteen, Elias left home for Blegan where he seeks to become a knight. He is given two options as to who will train him.


Sir Lenis Valdeck – Sir Lenis was once a well fit young lad and promising knight, but the years and pastries have not been kind to him. He is tall of stature but wide of girth. The other knights have taken to calling him Sir Lardis, though few will say it to his face due to the prominence of his family.

Lenis is interested in taking on a new squire who will be able to help him with the duties of knighthood.


Sir Yaron Mattes – Older cousin, of the senior (ruling) branch of the Mattes family. Yaron is in his mid-twenties, roughly ten years Elias’ senior. He is short of height but well fit. He is well known for his skills with the blade. Yaronis known to Elias, but they’re never been very close, the age difference likely being the reason for this.

Yaron is interested in training a new knight and is excited by the possibility of working with a member of his own family.

Sorry for the delay, exam week and all that.

Realizing that the road to knightdom will likely rough, Elias knows he needs allies along the way. He happily offers his services to his cousin,Yaron

In the morning, Sir Yaron greeted Elias at his door.

"Come," he with a slight grin on his face, clasping his cousin's shoulder. "We must spar each morning and keep our skills sharp. I will await your presence in the practice yard. Do not keep me waiting, cousin."

And with that Yaron left his cousin's quarters.

As his cousin turns and leaves the room, Elias lets out a short sigh before he gets dressed and ready to spar with his cousin.

It wasn't that he was sad to be reunited with his cousin, Elias always had a spot in his heart for Yaron, although Yaron likely didn't share the sentiment. Really, the only bond Elias made with him was because he was one of the few relatives that didn't shun Elias, even though they never really talked. Elias is more distressed about the sparring than anything, as he doesn't want to to let his cousin down.

"Coming!" Elias shouts down the stairwell as he hurredly pulls on his shirt, hoping to appear anxious despite his fear of actual physical combat.

Sir Yaron leads his kinsman down a spiral of stone steps and out into the courtyard.

Once his cousin has donned his armor and taken up his blade, his cousin tells him to come at him. "Let me see what you've got," he says; "try to kill me with your dull blade."

All of Elias's lunges, swipes, and chops were parried easily enough and soon the boy was starting to wear himself out. "Who was your armsmaster?" Yaron asks him while deflecting a clumsy attack with his sheild. "Did he teach you anything?"

Every once in a while when Elias misses, Sir Yaron smacks him in the back of the head with his hilt, or on the side of the helm with the flat of his blade; leaving his head ringing. At the end of the session Yaron says "We have much to work on, cousin."


"How are you with a bow?"

The horrible defeat comes as no surprise to Elias, but he had hoped that it wouldn't be as bad as this. Ever time he swings his sword, it is parried, and often followed up with a counter attack. Needless to say, it doesn't take long for Elias to get extremely stressed.

"Who was your armsmaster" Asked Yaron, but before Elias can explain how he had never showed up half the time and when he did he just didn't bother to pay much attention - after all his father wasn't exactly around to force him - he takes another hit to head, which leaves his ears ringing and vision spinning.

Thank Englar Elias thinks as his cousin finally backs off and lets him rest. However, what he hears next once again puts him in a nervous state.

"how are you with a bow?" Anglar asks. Although Elias practice archery now and again - far more often than sparring at least - he normally stayed cooped up in his house rather than go hunting, so he has never shot at a moving target. Even if he had, his head is spinning so much right now that he doubts he can keep his aim straight.

"I-I'm capable" Elias stutters, staring at the ground.

"Well," Sir Yaron says with a frown. "Let's go to the archery yard and take a few shots."

The knight leads his cousin to a far corner of the practice yard where several large haystacks sat in a row. They each had targets painted on them, red at the center, a ring of white, and a thick ring of blue.

"Let's do this," Yaron says with a half-smile, handing his cousin an arrow and a bow. "Aim for the center."


[OOC: roll a percentile die; to do this click on the image of the die above where you are typing and choose 'percentile' off of the list. I have a number in mind for the target, and depending on how close you come to it you hit a different part of the target. Within 10 you get a bullseye, within 25 you get the white ring, within 75 you hit the outer blue ring, over 75 you completely miss the target)]

(gripping, Bo; amazingly vivid imagery)


Elias lets his arrow fly and it hits the blue outer ring, not far from the white.

"You'll need to do better than that, coz;" Sir Yaron said. "Let's try again, shall we?"

[OOC: Fire again. Go ahead and roll one more time, feel free to include some sort of text accompanying your post; remember this is role playing not gaming. Number to hit is/was 75.]

As Elias pulls back the arrow a young paige jogs over to Sir Yaron with a scroll in his hand. "Sir Yaron," he says; "I have a message for you."

Yaron takes the scroll from the boy and watches as his cousin looses another arrow before reading it.

OOC: yeah, sorry about that, wasn't quite sure where the arrow landed. Looking back it was closer to blue than white, but then again hindsight is 20/20

Bo carried out 1 launched of one Percentile :

52

Oh Gods, I screwed up thinks Elias as his arrow embeds itself in the blue ring with a thud
When the paige hands Yaron his letter, Elias knows that he only has one more shot to prove himself before his cousin has to read the letter. As a bead of sweat slowly rolls down Elias's head, he slowly releases the breath he was holding, released the bowstring, and prayed to Englar for luck, knowing his future may well depend on this shot

(OOC: sorry about not being more vivid in that post, the I had a hunch that the percentile die would change when I edited the post, so I didn't put very specific information about the shot. Originally, I rolled an even 20, so unfortunately the hunch payed off )

[OOC: No problem, the first number I see is the one that counts, so the 52 counts.]

The second arrow lands just inside the white ring, a marked improvement from his first shot.

"Better," Yaron says; "but you still need work. We'll do this again on the morrow. For now our lessons are done. If I have need of you, I will send someone to get you."

I can't believe I screwed up that badly Elias thinks, If I'm going to succeed here, then I'm going to need much more practice Feeling rather depressed, Elias roams around the yard, untill he notices another young man that had also just finished sparring. After the young man's master leaves him, Elias picks up a training sword and shield and approaches him, eager at teh opportunity.

"Hello" Elias says "I just finished sparring as well, and I obviously need more practice. Would you like to spar a little before you retire?" he asks hopefully.

"Alright," the kid says; he is maybe two years younger than Elias. His skin is pale and dotted with freckles; he is thin and wirey. He holds a blunted sword before him. He motions for Elias to attack.

Elias raises his shield and slowly walks in a semicircle around his opponent, waiting for the time to strike. Suddenly, he sees his chance, and moves forward attempting to hit the young boy with an overhanded chop.

Elias comes in with an overhead chop, an attack that the boy sidesteps and counters with his own clumsy attack. The boys blade threatens to slap Elias on the side, but the Mattes youth parries the attack easily enough.

Seeing an opportunity to attack, Elias...

[OOC: post where you're aiming for, include three attempted attacks, and roll a 20 sided die at the end. We'll do that one more time on the next series of posts and that will determine the outcome of the battle. Good luck.]

Parrying his opponent's blade, Elias attempts to analyze his opponent for an opening before he loses his advantage, hoping to make up what he lacks in prowess with rationality. Suddenly, he spots it, an area left open when he bashed his opponent's blade to the side with his parry. Hoping to win a quick point, Elias jabs for the boy's midsection, planning to sweep his legs or chop at the head if that fails.

Bo carried out 1 launched of one twenty :

11

Elias comes in with a jab to the boy's mid section, the dulled point of the blade jars his armour and he takes a step back with a somewhat pained grunt. Capitalizing on the opportunity, the squire sweeps at his opponent's legs, landing a sharp bludgeoning strike on the other lad's calf. Elias makes a move with his blade then, striking at the boy's head; but he ducks.

His opponent kicks at Elias, knocking him back a few paces; briefly knocking the wind from the Mattes youth. The boy comes back in with a wild swipe of his blade, but it is easily dodged by Elias.

[OOC: write your plan and make one more roll]

(OOC: I dunno if you want three moves or one in this plan, but I'll put three and just ignore all but the first if you don't want them)

After dodging the boy's blade, Elias tries to hit his opponent with his shield in the attempt to stagger him, followed by a swipe to the ribs and an attempt to sweep the boy's feet from under him.

Bo carried out 1 launched of one twenty :

5

Elias moves in with his sheild, putting his weight behind the attack his opponent sidesteps and trips him; knocking him briefly to the ground.

The other boy laughs and offers Elias a hand up. "Let's call it a draw," the boy says; helping him to his feet. "I'm Neamis."