Fantasy RPG Forum - Standing Trials

Ymiden 81, Arc 721

Morning

The Garden of Smooglenuff Manor

On the 81st of Ymiden, Devin Thorn, High Priest of Delroth, medical genius in progress and unexpected Baron was doing stretches and other things that were necessary to warm up and subsequently prevent injuries before he bent down, put his hands on the mat he had placed on the grass and swung his legs and his torso upwards to do a handstand. He had just realized that the Barony had a definite problem, and he was hoping that he’d be able to solve it faster if his head was upside-down and all the blood was rushing into his brain.

Body tension and balance were not an issue anymore at this point in time, but unfortunately, being upside down did not lead to more or better thoughts. Instead of giving up, Devin decided to just up the ante though. Tensing his stomach and trying to keep his back straight, he moved one hand forward slightly and then another one and repeated the process, because walking on his hands might work better than just standing on them.

Unfortunately, that didn’t help either, so Devin eventually bent his arms, tucked his head in and did a somersault before he rose to his feet and began to mutter under his breath instead. “Grmbl”, he made and furrowed his brow before he turned to his pet goat Heidi who was standing nearby and watching him with a rather stoic expression on her face. “How do you grumble without using actual words?” he wanted to know. “Is ‘grmbl’ better or should I just say ‘grrr’? That’s growling though”, he realized.

“Growling is appropriate as well”, he decided a moment later and rolled up his mat just as the solution occurred to him, and he proceeded to smile all over his face. The new road had finally been finished. A road meant more visitors which meant more potential for trouble. It had occurred to him that the Barony’s defenses were still kind of lacking, apart from the wall around the manor. He’d been wondering what he should do to change that because he wasn’t too fond of thieves or bandits – provided that there were any bandits on Faldrass.

He had two swords though, and the training to be able to use them properly. He could just give the maids, the cooks and the stableboys some combat training himself so that they wouldn’t be defenseless anymore in case of an attack. He needed to show off his very shiny swords that had cost as much as a house more anyway. And not enough people had seen his amazing Blooded Leather armor yet either!

With that thought in mind, he tucked the rolled-up mat under his right arm and walked back into the manor, with a spring in his step and an even bigger smile on his face than before, his pet goat in tow. He’d let the people that were working at the manor know about his great idea right away.

This, he decided, would be fun!

Some time later

Once he had announced that he would offer free combat training to all interested parties in the afternoon and that there would be delicious drinks and chocolate cookies afterwards, Devin made his way into his room that featured a gigantic four-poster bed and a mural of a goat, among other things. He had briefly considered just ordering people to learn to defend themselves – he was a Baron and could probably order people to do all kinds of stuff now – but making it seem like a nice and very appealing offer was much better in his opinion.

He was sure a lot of people would come because he was the most persuasive person ever!

In order to learn how to defend themselves, the various employees needed weapons. Since Devin doubted that a lot of them owned a decent weapon, he’d decided to just lend them some of his own weapons. In his room was huge metal chest with a big lock on it that contained a lot of them. There were a masterfully made shortsword, a dagger with a bone handle, a spring-loaded dagger and a cane sword made of adamantite and gold, among other things.

They were all of decent quality and looked quite nice, but just as Devin tried to stuff them into his domain bag because he would be able to transport them more easily that way, something occurred to him. If he let the stableboys, the maids and all those others practice with real weapons, the Barony probably wouldn’t end up with well-trained employees, but with dead employees.

He didn’t want to have dead employees though!

Grumbling yet again, the young man thought about his own sword lessons – and remembered the various very ugly and stupid looking wooden practice weapons that his roommate Aidan had insisted on using.

So, he decided to procure a couple of practice weapons instead and took them into the garden where the lesson would take place, and then he went back to his room again because he hadn’t thought of taking his very shiny swords and his Blooded Leather armor with him.

Since walking around a lot and organizing practice weapons was exhausting, he abruptly plopped down on his bed and lay down for a few moments in order to relax, and then he stuffed a few pieces of chocolate that were in a bowl on his nightstand into his mouth just because he could!

Finally, he slipped into his armor, draped his Cavani’s Cloak across his shoulders because it would hopefully keep him from overheating and sweating (Sweating was ugly!), attached the sheaths with his shortswords (Made of an extravagant Grave Gold and Geminite alloy!) to his belt and went on his way in order to get everything ready for the upcoming lesson.

His newest set of students would use practice weapons, but since he already knew how to fight and would just be demonstrating a few things anyway, he saw no reason not to use weapons that actually looked good. He still planned on showing his swords off – as much as possible!

Even later

Devin had informed the employees that he had passed by of the lesson in person, and what more, he had also made a big poster and hung it on a wall in the entrance hall because people passed through it on a regular basis when they went carried out their various tasks around the manor.

As he walked through the entrance hall himself, wearing his glorious armor and his magnificent cloak and carrying a box that contained bags with cookies as well as a few bottles with various beverages, he thought about whether some sort of noticeboard would be a good idea. There were quite a lot of people that worked at the manor or in the Barony in general.

They could leave message to each other there – messages that weren’t private or secret, at least!

Grinning, because he was so proud of his great idea, the young man made his way into the garden where he had already arranged the practice swords on a table beforehand and placed the refreshments next to them, and then he eyed his work critically, his hands on his hips.

It just didn’t look good!

It was a garden table with practice weapons and refreshments on them, which was a somewhat unusual combination, everything considered – and a rather boring-looking one.

He thought about whether he should just leave it be, regardless, but he didn’t want an ugly sword fighting lesson, even though teaching people to defend themselves was more important than a table that looked nice.

So, he went back into his room again and procured a colorful paper garland and a couple of very pretty pink and blue silk flowers that he decorated the table with which made it look much, much better in his opinion.

He had just sat down on a garden chair, leaned back and pulled his golden cigar case out of a pocket because he deserved a smoke for all the hard work he had done and would still do, when the first two prospective students arrived, so he put his cigar case back and stood abruptly.

He had been a bit exhausted before, but all his exhaustion disappeared quickly upon seeing them!

“I’m so glad that you decided to take me up on my offer!” he proclaimed and shook the hands of the two cat Cadouri, maids, if he remembered correctly, with unmistakable enthusiasm. “I know that it’s a bit unusual that a Baron offers sword fighting lessons himself, but I thought it would be weird to hire someone when I’m perfectly capable myself. I can’t wait to show you a few things, and once you’ve learned to fight properly, I’ll make sure to get you all real swords so that you'll be able to defend yourselves, and … where is the rest?”

He broke off abruptly and proceeded to stare at the small group of people that had gathered while he had been talking. There were approximately ten people, a mixture of Cadouri and humans, and one male Biqaj, that looked at him expectantly, enthusiastically or admiringly and in one case somewhat warily. There were more than ten people working in the Barony though. Had he done something wrong? Why hadn’t more people listened to him?

Was he not a good enough leader?

He was an excellent leader, thank you very much!

“No matter”, he decided, having come to the conclusion that his announcement had happened on rather short notice and that not everybody had had time and that he would just do this on a regular basis.

He wanted to teach more, anyway!

For that reason, he smiled all over his face and proclaimed, “Let’s get started. First of all, I’ll show you the correct stance. I know, I know, you already know how to stand – I thought that learning how to stand sounded pretty stupid when I received my first sword fighting lesson - but standing when you are fighting and standing when you are just … standing … are two completely different things”, he explained.

“This is what you’ll have to do …”



How will the lesson go? Will Devin manage to teach people anything? Find out in the sequel!