Jarovbees
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Playing: Solstice (Paladin 6)/Umbrae (Sorcerer 1/Warlock 4)/Avren Wands (Rogue 2/Sorcerer 1)
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Post by Jarovbees on May 9, 2019 15:22:52 GMT
The glaive swung wide, though neither of the thugs seemed interested in gloating about it. Treating it as the stroke of good fortune it was, they didn't even turn to fight back, continuing their quest to put as much distance between themselves and the pair as possible.
Warden, notably less wounded than before though some stiff movements showed that she still had some healing to do. She had been prepared to ignore that and charge ahead, when Kara missed with her attack and stopped. Catching up, she sighed and shook her head as she stared at the retreating forms of the thugs. She lets her spell fade, glad that it at least got to see a little use earlier.
"Bet you anything they'll lay low for a bit, then go and team up with the next asshole who wants to play at being the biggest badass around. It never ends, around here." And yet, she dove into the fight anyway. Given her hardened expression, she doesn't regret it either. Warden would stop fighting that sort of shit when she was dead, it was simple as that. She then fidgeted, suddenly self-conscious. Being defeated in the ring was one thing, but she had nearly dropped here as well. Not the impression she wanted to continue making.
"...thanks. Those dipshits deserved everything they got." She paused to cast a Cure Wounds spell for Kara, placing a hand on her shoulder briefly.
Cure Wounds: COFL0x_h1d8+3 1d8+31d8+3·1d8+3
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Post by moralhazard on May 9, 2019 15:30:41 GMT
The puffiness around Kara’s eye receded into nothing; the marks of the mace blow on her arm faded as well. Beneath her tunic, Kara felt the wound in her chest knit shut, leaving behind a bloody smear and a hole in the shirt.
Kara inhaled and exhaled, cautiously testing her limbs, and nodded in satisfaction. She turned to look at Warden, scowling at her. She didn’t need to ask to know that this was something Warden did a lot. Funny that in the light of day Kara hadn’t recognized a kindred spirit. Here in the dark she saw clearly.
“Still want to learn the glaive?” Kara asked, resting the butt of the heavy weapon on the ground. The sword tip was smeared with blood and gore; bits had splattered along the wood as well.
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Jarovbees
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Playing: Solstice (Paladin 6)/Umbrae (Sorcerer 1/Warlock 4)/Avren Wands (Rogue 2/Sorcerer 1)
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Post by Jarovbees on May 9, 2019 17:27:43 GMT
And that was it, no more spells or divine healing until Warden slept again. Still, she had no regrets. Kara deserved what she could give and more, for jumping in to help when no one else would. Now that the fight was over and Warden's temper had receded, she realized how badly it could have gone with just herself against the thugs. That wouldn't have stopped her from taking some sort of action, though, not when there was someone in danger.
And where was Merric? Warden glanced around for the frightened halfling, but wasn't surprised to see that he was nowhere in sight. Smart man, taking cover when he could.
Meeting Kara's gaze with those solid red eyes, she gave a firm nod. "Gods, yes. You took them down faster than I ever could with my axe, and I've been training with this thing for years. If there's a better way to fight, one that lets me use everything I have, I'm going to take it. Otherwise, those assholes won't have anyone pushing back hard enough." And they need that, it was obvious to anyone who so much as passed through on their way to elsewhere.
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Post by moralhazard on May 9, 2019 17:35:31 GMT
Kara held Warden’s gaze, blue-grey eyes meeting red ones without any of the flinch or hesitation she’d displayed earlier. She listened to the taller women’s words, and was silent for a long few moments, weighing them in her mind.
But she didn’t need to. Not really.
Kara thought of herself, swinging an imaginary sword at her enemies on the Stone Shield’s practice courts. She thought of Ironfist, who’d seen something in her and decided Kara was worth her time and effort. Kara had never asked her what it was - had never asked her why. It didn’t matter, and perhaps she’d been a little afraid that Ironfist would change her mind. She thought she understood now.
Kara nodded, finally. “I’ll teach you.”
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Jarovbees
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Playing: Solstice (Paladin 6)/Umbrae (Sorcerer 1/Warlock 4)/Avren Wands (Rogue 2/Sorcerer 1)
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Post by Jarovbees on May 9, 2019 18:54:26 GMT
The tension within Warden evaporated at that, and she stood up straighter with an eager gleam in her eyes. In that moment, any lingering pain from her injuries had no hold on her. It was as though Kara had handed her the keys to an estate in the Sea Ward and told her to have at, the offer meant that much.
"Thank you. Name the time and place, and I'll be there. I'm not afraid of hard work or how long it'll take to get to where you are now."
It took nine years' training to fully be ready for life as a paladin of Selune; hopefully mastering a weapon she already had at least a passing familiarity with wouldn't take that long. But she wasn't going to dwell on any time-table, nine years or otherwise. This would be her focus for as long as it took, and she would use her newfound skill to make every thug in the Field Ward regret leeching off the desperate.
"...and I'd offer to get drinks, but that tavern over there waters their stuff down and tastes exactly how you'd expect, for shantytown fare. The food is...worse."
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Post by moralhazard on May 9, 2019 19:26:09 GMT
Kara nodded. She paused, thinking over her schedule. “Tomorrow,” she said, finally. “An hour before sunset.” She named a location in the Dock Ward. Kara wasn’t sure it was strictly allowed to train a paladin of Selune in a training space of Helmites, but she thought Helm would rather approve of Warden’s work. And no one had complained about Dhaunmyr.
Kara shrugged a little at the mention of ale. She wasn’t in the mood for a drink anyway. She doubted she would need to rest tonight, and it wasn’t so late. She thought she might try to pick up a late night work shift today, to give herself a little more flexibility the next day.
“See you tomorrow,” Kara slung her glaive into the makeshift holster on her back, turned and walked off, boots nearly silent on the ground. In a few moments she was gone, disappeared into the field ward. Overall, a good fight and a new student. Kara felt the same ease and clarity of purpose she always did when she made a decision that was right. It was a feeling like entering battle, when everything clicked into place and there was no room for doubt. Warden would work hard; Kara could see that about her at a glance. Tomorrow, she would size the paladin up with polearms.
And soon - maybe not the next day, maybe not the next week or even the next month, but soon - Kara would be able to pass along what her mentor had taught her. Ironfist wasn’t gone, not really, not as long as Kara was still alive to teach her lessons. And soon, Warden would carry Ironfist’s spirit with her as well. Kara already looked forward to it.
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Jarovbees
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Post by Jarovbees on May 9, 2019 21:30:58 GMT
"Tomorrow, before sunset. Got it." Since Warden was usually not active (or even awake) that much earlier in the day, that worked out well for Warden's own schedule. She nodded, and perked up at mention of the Dock Ward location. Her memory wasn't always the sharpest, but she had spent her childhood in that location and those memories never really had a chance to fade when she visited the area regularly. It seemed a little fitting in her mind that the neighborhood were she had the encounter that had changed the course of her life be a backdrop to it changing once more.
As Kara walked away, Warden bent down and yanked a sash from the fallen leader, wiping down her blood-stained battleaxe. It was time to loot the thug's blood-soaked bodies and do a little distributing. She was dead certain that the thugs had squeezed the other business along the street, and they deserved to see their coin returned if it was at all possible. She didn't bother with running for the off-duty guards of the City Watch. They would notice soon enough and might alert someone to take the bodies away, but they wouldn't do anything more than that. Zealous investigations were for the other side of the wall, for crimes against those who had wealth and influence.
An hour before sunset, Warden made good on her word and weaved around the considerable foot traffic from those making their way home or heading out for the evening. For her part, the tiefling didn't change anything about her garb or general appearance. Her wardrobe was limited and Kara hadn't specified her needing to bring anything, thankfully. Since her personal weapons stash didn't include a glaive and it seemed weird if not rude to use Kara's (if that was even allowed), Warden tapped into her contacts and borrowed one. Hopefully she'd earn enough soon that the loan would be short-term; she didn't like being in people's debt.
Closing in on the location mentioned, Warden ignored any sense of deja vu from the streets and buildings in her sight. The scent drifting onto the street from a nearby corner tavern strongly reminded her of when she would sneak into that very one to steal food for the orphanage. Or maybe 'steal'. She hadn't been that much more stealthy back then, armor aside. And the more she thought about it, Warden realized that after a while, the foodstuffs left out began to increase. Maybe someone was just being kind, but she knew better than to ask anyone at the tavern about that shadiness and was just quietly thankful if that was the case.
It was difficult, but Warden focused her mind on the present and her grip on the borrowed glaive helped. It was a physical reminder that there was more to her story than what happened in her childhood, much more.
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Post by moralhazard on May 9, 2019 21:37:46 GMT
Kara was standing on the street, glaive slung across her back. She was wearing the same black tunic from the night before, rinsed clean of blood, with a small neat patch closing up the hole that the crossbow bolt had punched into it (and her) the night before.
She looked up as Warden approached, and gave the tiefling a slight nod. She didn’t exactly wait for her to reach Kara, just turned and made her way up a narrow, winding staircase, one even Warden had never been up before. She knocked at the top; there was a murmured exchange of words involving ‘Helm,’ and the door opened.
Kara disappeared inside, leaving Warden to follow.
Inside the door was a large training space; there were two people sparring with swords and shields in the center of it, blunted training weapons. Symbols of Helm were all over the place, along with weapons racks – although, Warden would note, no glaives. There were more private rooms off to the side, several occupied with loud sounds of training coming from inside. There wasn't the same supply of healing potions as at the Gathering, but there were plenty of bandages and waterskins, along with a little basket of mostly dried foodstuffs and some apples.
Kara paused just inside the door, and turned to Warden, a worried frown crossing her face. She had thought about whether those at the space would mind Warden, but not whether Warden might. “… You don’t mind?” Kara asked after a moment, gesturing at a particularly large gauntlet with an eye on it that had been painted on the wall, and looking seriously at the paladin.
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Jarovbees
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Playing: Solstice (Paladin 6)/Umbrae (Sorcerer 1/Warlock 4)/Avren Wands (Rogue 2/Sorcerer 1)
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Post by Jarovbees on May 9, 2019 23:13:01 GMT
Warden approached and was about to speak when Kara turned, apparently leading her elsewhere. Eager to begin lessons and very much curious about where Kara intended to have them take place, she followed without asking for explanations. That would come soon enough, she was certain. Carefuly with the narrow staircase, Warden raised an eyebrow as she realized this was going to be outside her previous experience with the Dock Ward and all the roughshod 'training' it had to offer a bored urchin or thug.
Following Kara to the door, Warden couldn't help herself and immediately peered around. The Symbols of Helm were noted with a nod; after meeting at the Gathering, she couldn't be too surprised that Kara had other Helm connections. The sounds of training from all over prompted a grin; now this was a proper place to train. The lack of healing potions didn't bother her either, for obvious reasons.
Looking back over to Kara, she shook her head and couldn't hide the glint of excitement in her solid red eyes. "Not at all. Training is training, I don't care where it happens. And I have no beef with Helm, anyway. One of the private rooms, then?"
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Post by moralhazard on May 9, 2019 23:23:37 GMT
Kara nodded, satisfied. She took two quarterstaves from a nearby rack, and carried them under one arm into an open room, setting them down on the floor next to the large training mat. Kara slung her glaive off her back, propping it against a wall, and extended a hand for Warden’s, waiting patiently until the paladin realized what she meant and handed it to her.
Kara checked the weapon over with a practiced eye, then nodded in satisfaction, and set it against the wall next to her own. It wasn’t nearly as nice, of course, but it would do quite well.
Once they were ready for glaives, that is.
Kara picked up one of the quarterstaves, and tossed it lightly to Warden. She didn’t look, assuming that the paladin would catch it, and leaned down to scoop up the second for herself. She crossed the training mat, took a loose and ready stance on the other side, and waited for Warden to do the same.
Once the tiefling was set, Kara would burst off the mat and charge in with a quick strike, swinging like she meant it. The armor, Kara thought, was for the best; it meant she didn't have to pull her strikes to keep the lesson from ending too quickly.
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Jarovbees
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Post by Jarovbees on May 10, 2019 5:59:51 GMT
Quarterstaves first? Well, that made sense...and might buy her a little more time to purchase a glaive of her own. She promptly handed it over for inspection, fairly certain it was of at least passable quality but still relieved as Kara gave it her unspoken approval. It was probably in the range of what she could afford and would spend, at least until enough time had been spent that she'd splurge on something even better.
Warden set down her shield and battleaxe on the floor as well, out of range. Expecting the toss, she managed to catch the quarterstaff and echoed Kara's stance. She trained every day of her life, hopefully at least some of that would carry over. As Kara charged, the tiefling tried to remember what she had already been taught in terms of using staves. At the time, she had protested, seeing no reason for it. Well, her instructor would be smirking now.
She had similar thoughts about the armor, especially when Kara's staff swung close. Reacting automatically, she raised her quarterstaff and tried to block it. That maneuver -barely- succeeded, though her teeth gritted a little from the strain of it. Backing up, she then swung her staff experimentally at Kara, testing her own defenses. Sure, she had before, but now they had the same weapon in hand and that made it more interesting.
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Post by moralhazard on May 10, 2019 13:37:52 GMT
Warden lifted her staff to block Kara’s, just barely managing it, and returned with a strike of her own. Kara shifted her staff to block it, seemingly effortlessly.
Kara would keep the spar up for a long time. In that time, Warden would find herself managing to get in a few good strikes; she had used a quarterstaff before, after all, and she knew what she was doing.
The majority of the time, however, Kara would force her to defend, with quick powerful strikes. Some hit; some Kara pulled; others Warden would dodge or deflect. More than once, Kara would use the staff to push or yank, pairing it with her strength to knock Warden back or yank her feet out from under her and knock her to the mat.
It really only took Kara a few minutes to gauge where Warden was. She wasn’t an expert with the staff, that was clear, but Kara could tell she had used one before and knew somewhat what she was doing, and that she had good combat reflexes besides. None of that was exactly new either, not after the fights they’d been in the day before.
All the same, she kept at the training exercise, forcing Warden to keep going and keep going. It was partly about demonstration, but also about grit. She wanted to see Warden get up, and get up again, and again, even when bruised and tired and aching.
Finally, Kara would call a stop to the spar. She stepped out of the training room and returned with a waterskin for each of them, handing Warden hers.
Kara took a drink of water herself, then nodded. “Now we can get started.”
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Jarovbees
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Post by Jarovbees on May 10, 2019 17:53:48 GMT
If there was anything Warden had in spades, it was grit. She wasn't the fastest, either in general or compared to Kara's skill with polearms, and there were plenty of times when she failed to block and got knocked down on her ass. Even so, she never complained and always got back to her feet right afterward, no matter how much her body complained. A setback was just a reason to try harder, as far as she was concerned, and she wasn't going to allow Kara to think she wanted it easy in any way. Push her, test her, keep knocking her down. As long as she learned from it, that was the only thing that mattered to the tiefling.
When Kara called for an end to the sparring, Warden reluctantly lowered her quarterstaff and stretched, wincing slightly as she rubbed the back of her neck. Divine healing wasn't going to happen, though. She had too much self-respect to tap into that except for those times when it was truly warranted. A sparring session where she was merely tired and aching certainly didn't count, and she didn't want anyone (read: Kara) thinking her soft.
She took the waterskin with a grateful smile, tilting her head back and taking a couple of big gulps before daring to reply. "I haven't fought with quarterstaves like that in a few years, thank Selune my muscles remembered for me." Her body always seemed to have a better memory than her mind, though she knew this was going to take more than relying on that alone. "Ready for more, whenever you like."
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Post by moralhazard on May 10, 2019 19:52:32 GMT
Kara glanced at Warden, gauging her tiredness, then down at the staff in her hand. She had been much less experienced than Warden when Ironfist had trained her; they had stayed on quarterstaves for a long time. She didn’t think that would be necessary for Warden. Unlike the Kara she had been, Warden could probably be trusted to handle a glaive without cutting off any fingers or toes. Ironfist had been quite cheerfully clear about why Kara hadn’t been allowed one for a little while.
Kara took the quarterstaff from Warden, and set them both aside. They’d try a training exercise with the glaive, then. Warden could heal, anyway, so the worst probably wouldn’t be too bad.
Kara handed Warden the glaive that the paladin had brought, then took her own from the wall next to it. Her weapon was gleaming and clean, the blade and wood wiped free of any drop of blood. She had oiled both last night, and polished them this morning to a healthy shine, as clean and perfect as they had been before any of her fights the day before (and as they had been between them).
Kara took a stance on the edge of the training mat, and gestured to the spot next to her. First, grasp and stance. She demonstrated where to hold ones hands on the shaft, knees slightly bent, and turned to check Warden’s grip. She wasn’t worried about the paladin’s stance – it wasn’t so different from other fighting stances – but Kara fussed at her grip, a little, forcing her to move her hands slightly further apart once, then, after gauging with a practiced eye, again.
Only then would they start to practice. Kara took Warden through several basic strikes first, thrusts and slash, and they worked up to a simple combination, focusing on the blade to start. Once Warden seemed to be able to do those again and again, Kara showed her how to put them together in a fairly simple training dance: a few steps, a combination, a turn, another combination, a few more steps, and a finishing combination. All three combinations used only the strikes she’d been taught so far, although in different orders.
Kara demonstrated it first, once at speed, whirling through the room as if she was truly battling an imaginary enemy. When she did it, with full commitment, it was almost as if Warden could see the enemy on the other side of the glaive.
Then Kara demonstrated it again, each movement slow, flawless and effortlessly controlled; she didn’t stop at any point, but she went very slowly, wanting to let Warden see exactly how the blade should move at each moment.
Then Kara would walk Warden through it, step by step, as many times as it took until she was ready to try the training dance on her own.
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Jarovbees
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Playing: Solstice (Paladin 6)/Umbrae (Sorcerer 1/Warlock 4)/Avren Wands (Rogue 2/Sorcerer 1)
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Post by Jarovbees on May 10, 2019 23:15:38 GMT
So they'd get to glaives today, after all. Excellent. Warden took the glaive handed her with a nod and eager glint in her eyes, noting the well-cared-for state of Kara's own weapon. The paladin wasn't one to treat her weapons badly either, and it gratified though not shocked her to see that level of professionalism from the woman training her.
Heading over to the spot indicated, Warden echoed the stance and watched intently as Kara went through her demonstrations. The grip would take some getting used to, but no matter how much correcting she needed, the tiefling woman followed through without complaint. It was better to over-fuss than not fuss enough, in this case.
From strikes to combination to a training dance, Warden was an eager and dedicated pupil. She had been a bit older than some when first joining the paladin training at the House of the Moon, years ago. So, she was used a fast pace in order to play catch-up. It took practice and some correcting to manage it at first, but Warden felt that with enough time, it would come a lot more naturally. After all, she could practically do her own battleaxe training exercises in her sleep now.
Kara's first demonstration was inspiring to watch, but the next was definitely easier to follow. Reminded of what she wanted to accomplish and then seeing exactly how that could be done, she followed through as thoroughly as possible. She met Kara's gaze every so often, fairly certain that she wasn't too slow or clumsy for this, but still reassured whenever the human woman seemed satisfied with her work.
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