Fantasy RPG Forum - Standing Trials

Timestamp:2nd of Ymiden, 718
Location:Rharne

It was Vivian's first day off in the season, and she had plans for it. It had already been a weird season though, given that she had woken up the day before with memories that she hadn't even known were missing all intact and the items she had acquired during Cassion's Gambit piled on her bedroom floor. Edasha, U'frek and Delroth had all given her charms that she had stored very carefully, but the two most important items had received a different treatment. The cup she had gotten from Ilaren had been placed in her kitchen, where it would see use, but in a very special place. Then there was the sword, her sword. Shiryu they had called it and it bloody near sang to her when she drew it. It fit as well in her hand as it had in Gilgarod and as her memories had returned she had smiled openly. This was it, the result of the forging that had restored her drive, had restored the color to her life, had given her the will to move forward again.

Then she had gotten ready for the day and had been rather shocked when she looked in the mirror. She hadn't realized how far she had let herself go, she didn't look at all the way a Lightning Knight of Rharne should look, she looked like a failed rebel from Rynmere. Sighing, she had resolved to get that sorted and had resolved to get herself looking like a proper soldier again, not some reject who happened to be able to afford a nice house. So it was that now that she had a day off, she found herself heading towards the clothing shops. First things first, she had to get her casual wear up to scratch.

To that end, she visited one of the shops known for making durable clothing and bought a black wool shirt, a brown leather jacket with fur trim, brown leather trousers, black leather gloves, and a black leather baldric that was more suited to Shiryu then the one she had been using for her rapier had been. Clothing settled, Vivian then tracked down a shoe store and got herself a pair of good solid black leather boots to complete her casual wear. With that gathered, the young knight returned to her home briefly to change out of her old, now worn and somewhat tattered clothes and into the near clothes she had just picked up. Looking herself over in the mirror briefly, Vivian smiled to herself and nodded, finally looking like a proper knight now, instead of a run down soldier who had seen too many failures. Belting on the baldric, which now had Shiryu attached, she headed back out into Rharne for the next order of business.

Of course, casual gear was only part of a proper knightly ensemble. Her chain mail was good, and she would treasure it as a gift from her friend for the rest of her life. But it was also too light for heavy combat and she need something sturdier. She needed proper plate armor, and so she headed to the forge. She had actually stopped in the previous day to place her order and she brought something she had been given at the Lightning Cathedral the previous day. Two spheres that crackled with lightning, a gift from the other knights in recognition of her service, they had said to apply to her armor and shield when it was done.

The forge was, as was typical of non-dream forges, absolutely sweltering when she entered, but she could tolerate the heat. It would be utterly miserable in Saun though, and she was glad she didn't have to work in a forge. When the smith nodded at her to approach, she smiled and walked over. "The knights gave me these to add to the armor and the shield you made for me." she said, holding out the spheres she had been given from her comrades. The smith looked at them a moment, then nodded and pressed one sphere into her new armor, and another into her new shield. The armor itself was beautiful, a bright burnished steel with blue patterning and gold trimming forming the symbols of Rharne. The shield was the symbol of Rharne in gold on a blue field with the edge of the shield in silver. When the armor and the shield accepted the sphere, they started to crackle as streaks of lightning criss-crossed over the surface of the armor.

Reaching out, Vivian touched her armor and was somewhat surprised to find it didn't injure her at all. Grinning, she tried on the armor at smith's urging, then thanked him for his fine work and paid for the plate armor. The fit was as perfect as she could hope, the mastercrafted armor better than she had dared hope. She briefly returned home again, having spent the whole morning out and about on the town now and needing to eat something before she set about the latter half of her day. The walk also did her good, the new plate armor was heavy and she needed to get used to the weight, help it settle. Once lunch was consumed, she left her house again, now heading up to the training grounds of the Lightning Knights.

The training grounds were as busy as ever, but she was already decent with her weapons, what she needed was to improved with her Palenon abilities. There was a special area of the grounds set aside for training the members of the knights with Ilaren's blessing, and she sought out a specific corner of it, raised above the others. "Ho there, Vivian!" one of the other knights said, coming over to her and grinning at her new armor as lightning raked across it. "You're looking much better than you did yesterday. I'm guessing you've advanced some in Palenon?" he asked, his tone cheerful.

Vivian nodded and grinned. "Yeah. Got something I'm told is called "Ride The Lightning", lets me jump a good ten feet into the air. All things being equal, I figured it'd be good to get a handle on that." she said, her tone showing she was eager to practice. The other knight laughed at her enthusiasm, then left her to her training while he went to attend to his own. Approaching raised structure, which was divided into three heights, two of which were far out of her reach, she took a deep breath. Then, she gathered the lightning under her feet and used it to propel herself into the air. The leap was quick and sharp and she was able to reach the top of the structure pretty easily. She practice a few more times to make sure she had the gist of the leap itself, then nodded to herself as an idea occurred to her.

Running over to the wall around the training grounds, Vivian grabbed three training dummies and carried them up to the top of the raised structure, setting them up at various points around the top of the platform. Then she made her way back to the bottom and gathered the lightning under her feet again, leaping into the air. This time, however, she gathered lightning in her palm and threw it at the closest "enemy" to her intended landing point while she was the height of her leap. As she descended, she drew Shiryu and was able to bring down on the "enemy" she had hit with Elemental Manipulation. She was starting to notice another part of her Palenon abilities was that it increased her reaction time, which was a very handy thing indeed. Grinning, Vivian practiced the technique for another fifteen bits, since she could only use Elemental Manipulation once a bit, and she was able to pull it off quicker with each repetition, aim faster and draw her sword faster. Once she was done, she put the dummies away, then headed over to the armor stands to pull off her new armor. For the other part of todays training, she didn't want to be heavily armored.

Once she was out of her armor, Vivian headed over to the part of the training grounds where the knights practiced their unarmed combat. She handed Shiryu over to the knight who kept watch over the weapons, since weapons weren't allowed in that part of the grounds. Given that most of the unarmed combat in Rharne were either the sanctioned duels of the fighting ring or outright bar brawls, the unarmed combat arena was designed to look like a bar and was more or less a continues bar brawl. One didn't go looking for a sparring partner here, one walked into the "bar" and punched a fellow trainer in the gob. So, she did just that and found herself immediately swept up in the erratic energy of the training brawl.

The reaction time she had noticed while practicing with Ride The Lightning and Elemental Manipulation was still present in full, and she found herself able to dodge and block blows that would have caught her before. Of course, she still found herself thrown around and bashed more than a few times. Partly because there was just a lot of hits to try and avoid, but also because others had Palenon. Eventually, she emerged from the brawl nursing an aching jaw and a ringing ear and stopped by the guy who kept hold of the weapons. As this was Rharne, where drinking was only natural, being trained to handle various states of drunkenness was important. So the fellow who managed the weapons also ran an open tap for those who wanted to get a drink while training.

Vivian knew that, compared to most of those who were born Rharnian, she was a bit of a lightweight. Still, she had downed what would have been two glasses of beer before she felt drunk enough to go test out Palenon's effect on her brawling. She also noticed, quite happily, that her glass had not emptied one bit while she had been drinking. Handy ability that, especially if she actually had ever had to host a party. With that establish, Vivian rejoined the ongoing training brawl and found, not entirely to her surprise, that her reaction speed was dulled. However, what was surprising was that she was actually stronger, not the alcohol induced illusion of great strength, but actually increased strength.

Vivian stayed in the brawl for another fifteen bits after that little discovery, but ultimately she left and declined any further drinks. She still had her daughters to raise proper, after all, and she couldn't do that if she was completely drunk. So instead, she took Shiryu from the weapons keeper, then redonned her armor before she left the training grounds nursing an aching jaw, a bruised side, and overall being very satisfied with her day as she returned to her home.