Rudiger Dornmauer
Established
Roleplay posts: 23
Age: 35
Appearance: Rudiger is tall at 6'3", and muscularly built from his profession. His skin is weathered from his life on the road, with the first wrinkles of age appearing at the sides of his mouth and his eyes have given way to several more. Thick calluses on his right hand from wielding his sword have grown thicker from continuous use over the years. His light brown hair, once sheered to a fade parted on the right side, has grown out longer and has been joined by a healthy snowfall of gray. His strong chin that was once covered by thick goatee has been shaved to stubble, but his thick mustache has remained. His most prominent feature is a thick scar and his missing left eye, which he covers with a tan eyepatch, which he lost in a fight with a bear.
Equipment: Rudiger wears a variety of clothes, depending on the situation. For battle, he wears a worn, red gambeson underneath steel plate armor which has seen better days, being dented in several places and rusted from time spent in the waves. He wears a bellow faced sallet helm, though the visor can stand to be hammered back into proper shape. He wields a mace, his hand and a half sword being rusted into its scabbard. The kite shield of old has been lost in the storm.
When he's not in battle, he wears a white wool shirt, and thick woolen black pants. He always wears his tan riding boots.
Bob the destrier remains by his side, the heavy wooden saddle with a high cantle and pommel covered in thick leather being a bit worse for wear.
Skills and Abilities: Rudiger was born into a minor noble family in the Grand Duchy of Voruta, who were simple knights in the service of the kingdom. Rudiger was born as a second son, so he had no hope of inheriting the family estate, but he was still raised in the arts of war. He proved to be gifted with the use of the sword and shield, and being a naturally talented rider. His skill with the sword and shield has only grown from his occupation of Knight Errant.
Biography: Rudiger is not idealistic, but not pessimistic either. He believes in the rule of law, unless those laws are unjust. He believes in a higher power, but he doesn't go to Church. His whole belief system can be distilled to a single sentence: Do good, avoid evil. He strives to do at least one good turn daily, and seeks to protect the innocent. His last memories were of a long ago adventure with Khepri and Roxanne, though the details are somewhat fuzzy to him.
Registered: Sept 10, 2023 14:35:29 GMT -5
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Post by Rudiger Dornmauer on Apr 9, 2024 20:36:26 GMT -5
The dagger took the Knight completely off guard though he did not flinch from her movement. He had traveled with her enough these past few weeks to know that if she truly meant to deal with him that she would have done so already. He also knew that true danger did not alert its victims before it struck, which the missing eye proved beyond a reasonable doubt.
"That is rather ingenious," he noted to her as she settled the blade back into her sleeve. "Sharp, slim enough to slip into the cracks of any piece of armor I would believe? There is nothing that can protect you from that little bit of devilry." He quipped softly as he went back to clearing out one last hint of rust on the hinge.
He shook his head at her saying she abandoned him in the fight, "Quite the opposite of abandonment. The phrase, 'the better part of courage is discretion', is correct for many reasons. Courage is not charging into a problem head on without a plan, that is stupidity of the highest order. You understood that you with your current weapons and skill set would do no good on the ground where you would be more easily attacked by the hyenas and probably come in the way between me and Bob putting us all in greater risk." The horse raised his head enough to shake it up and down in agreement.
Her plaintive explanation was more than enough to woo him to her side. He was no fencing master by any stretch of the imagination, and there was only so much they could do by fire light for stances and footwork, but he assented, "We will have to do our work in the mornings so I can show you proper steps. But I will teach you."
Detecting no small amount of urgency in her voice he consoled her gently, "You will be strong enough to face your foes, whatever may come. The heart leads the way, and if it is strong then there will be little in the way to stop you."
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Nina
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 289
Registered: Apr 4, 2021 10:46:08 GMT -5
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Post by Nina on Apr 22, 2024 15:16:31 GMT -5
They kept travelling. Training with the knight had opened up new strength for Nina, and she was there every evening with a smile on her face and a stick in her hand, steeling herself for her new set of bruises. Rudiger would discover that the girl had some basics in footwork, though her steps were rusty, as well as a propensity for trickery that she agreed to refrain from in order to properly learn. As promised, she grit her teeth and did not complain, although at times she would simply fall asleep on camelback during the day. Exhaustion seemed to be the only thing that helped with her camel-sickness. ('It moves like a ship, but I see no water!', Nina had explained it, while climbing down to settle her stomach.
They encountered feathered lions, were beset by carnivorous butterflies, and walked through a steppe where the plants were actually strange ribbon-like creatures that retreated underground when touched (the dragon-camels did not like that). Throughout it all, they kept moving, their journeys illustrated in increasingly sparse detail onto a scroll of birch-bark. Nina's gift for magic found no use – not until later. And so, the caravan came upon the source of the Silver river.
By now the Argentium was a thin, rushing torrent that Bob could leap across, and it flowed as a waterfall out of a great lake. The lake was so large that one could not see its other end. They set camp on the shore, and the dragon-camels had a long soak to shake off the dust of the road. Nina threw her clothes sideways and leapt off a tree for a dive. She saw – well upon her second dive, actually, since in her first she was peacefully floating deep underwater, basking in the light reflecting off the golden jellyfish that inhabited the lake, when she was startled by the weight of Rudiger's body hitting the water and then proceeding to sink in towards her at a concerning pace. She'd had to tow him up from his misplaced rescue, that brave, brave man, and she'd had to sheepishly explain that where she'd spent her summers as a child, holding your breath for that many heartbeats wasn't that unusual, and that she's sorry, and the heartbeats are also slower down there, and also, is he feeling all right?
Upon her second dive, then, she sank all the way to the bottom of the lake. The fish mostly stayed on the surface, or swam along the edges, so she just followed a half-eaten jellyfish as it spun down, down, a golden leaf like those just starting to sprout above. When it touched the sand, it shuddered, and curled the wrong way round itself, until it looked like a gruesome flower. Nina watched sadly as its tentacles fell off. Yet as Nina's eyes adjusted, she saw many such flowers all around. They bobbed lightly in the current, attached to the sandy shore by thin stalks, and some appeared to have several rows of petals. As she watched, one of them pulsed, releasing a flower. The flower turned inside out, and it swam away as a jellyfish. Nina gasped.
“I think they're undying. Undying jellyfish.” She exclaimed, as she reached the camp. Later she would find a crevice in the shore with clear enough waters that her companions could watch that strange garden of the depths from the boat.
There were tears streaming down her face, though the water made it hard to tell. It was such a small, wondrous thing, of use to no one and harming no one, that made her fall even more in love with the world around her. 'They were blooming,' Nina whispered to herself, as she tried to coax the ochre from the mouth of the Silver River into the soft orange glow she remembered.
They planned to take it easy. A day, or two perhaps, Nina, Rudiger and Bob would do some light scouting around the lake, while Jungsai would stay with his herd. The jellyfish might have been wonderful, but they were not exactly something to take home and brag about.
Thinking back, Nina realized she had been feeling off from the evening. Strange that she'd gotten the bends, she thought, without even exerting herself that much. But she could sleep it off, except then she couldn't, twisting to and fro in an uncharacteristic fashion. In the morning, the traveller was snappy and indecisive. Still, they kept to the plan, though there was a bitter taste to their parting now.
As they walked along the shore, Nina stewed over her feelings of anger and guilt. Every now and then, pain stabbed through the side of her skull. She pressed her fingers against her temples when she thought Sir Rudiger and Bob weren't looking; gritted her teeth. She wouldn't admit to the headache – I'm fine, she snapped – because what if they blamed her for the dive? Yet as they kept walking through knee-high grass that was, for once, the usual green, the girl kept turning her head, tilting it to the side. Her eyes kept turning to one particular direction, and wincing, because the pain – it was too bright, she thought, though wait, wasn't the sun in the other direction? When she realized what was wrong, her guts turned to ice.
She stopped.
“We should hide. Now.” Nina managed to say.
Her headache seemed to strike parts of her skull at random, until she realized it was all coming from the same, outside direction. That could only mean one thing: magic. Powerful magic; maybe a piece of the Clocktower. And by the way the headache had been increasing-
“Something big is coming.”
As she spoke, the breeze changed direction. The grass rippled from the direction Nina was pointing at. There would be little place to hide in the open.
If a few minutes, one might be able to make out, in the distance, the flapping of two scaly wings.
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Rudiger Dornmauer
Established
Roleplay posts: 23
Age: 35
Appearance: Rudiger is tall at 6'3", and muscularly built from his profession. His skin is weathered from his life on the road, with the first wrinkles of age appearing at the sides of his mouth and his eyes have given way to several more. Thick calluses on his right hand from wielding his sword have grown thicker from continuous use over the years. His light brown hair, once sheered to a fade parted on the right side, has grown out longer and has been joined by a healthy snowfall of gray. His strong chin that was once covered by thick goatee has been shaved to stubble, but his thick mustache has remained. His most prominent feature is a thick scar and his missing left eye, which he covers with a tan eyepatch, which he lost in a fight with a bear.
Equipment: Rudiger wears a variety of clothes, depending on the situation. For battle, he wears a worn, red gambeson underneath steel plate armor which has seen better days, being dented in several places and rusted from time spent in the waves. He wears a bellow faced sallet helm, though the visor can stand to be hammered back into proper shape. He wields a mace, his hand and a half sword being rusted into its scabbard. The kite shield of old has been lost in the storm.
When he's not in battle, he wears a white wool shirt, and thick woolen black pants. He always wears his tan riding boots.
Bob the destrier remains by his side, the heavy wooden saddle with a high cantle and pommel covered in thick leather being a bit worse for wear.
Skills and Abilities: Rudiger was born into a minor noble family in the Grand Duchy of Voruta, who were simple knights in the service of the kingdom. Rudiger was born as a second son, so he had no hope of inheriting the family estate, but he was still raised in the arts of war. He proved to be gifted with the use of the sword and shield, and being a naturally talented rider. His skill with the sword and shield has only grown from his occupation of Knight Errant.
Biography: Rudiger is not idealistic, but not pessimistic either. He believes in the rule of law, unless those laws are unjust. He believes in a higher power, but he doesn't go to Church. His whole belief system can be distilled to a single sentence: Do good, avoid evil. He strives to do at least one good turn daily, and seeks to protect the innocent. His last memories were of a long ago adventure with Khepri and Roxanne, though the details are somewhat fuzzy to him.
Registered: Sept 10, 2023 14:35:29 GMT -5
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Post by Rudiger Dornmauer on Apr 30, 2024 20:47:46 GMT -5
Rudiger was very glad that she had at least the basics of footwork, from staying on the balls of one feet and learned in the ways of shifting weight with barely a movement, and was even taken off guard when she had tripped him unexpectedly. "Good, very good," he stated in astonishment from the ground before leveraging himself up. There was no admonishment from him as they agreed to help her relearn honestly. Though in good time there would be a time for trickery in footwork that the knight had to remind himself on how to do. Fighting with shield and sword was a far different beast from fencing as had been explained to him a multitude of times on the training grounds of the Dornmauer Estate.
While Nina often slept on the back of the camels Rudiger was always one to keep watch, used to the motion of riding on the back of Bob (it was how he spent 9/10 of his waking hours usually) and honestly more at peace with the presence of the large herd. It was something of an exhilarating experience to cut the wings off a butterfly trying to take a bit out of the back end of the destrier (he did not let Bob have any rest on that front) and both shared in the sentiments of the camels about the strange ribbon creatures. Grass was not supposed to move like that, and when they went underground neither could decide if they would eventually rise back up and attempt to snare them. Luckily they proved cowardly and they passed without further interference.
There was a much enjoyed bath and washing of clothes on the first day by the lake, though that had been startled by the extended dive of Nina. "Good Heavens that man is never going to let me live if Nina drowned here," raced the mind of the knight as she did not emerge for one minute, than two, than three. There was but one lake in the Duchy and it was hardly deep enough to make a proper dive so in his thoughts there was but one explanation and thus one course of action: diving in after her. Luckily for the pair of them his larger form announced his arrival long before his physical presence by her side so he did not drown all his own. A rather sarcastic and out of breath reply greeted her explanation, "Why... yes, we from the landlocked Duchy... clearly know how others... swim forever without a... breath."
It was around the fire that night that Rudiger wished more than ever for a good draught of schnapps. Not just in celebration for making it this far mostly unscathed, for the quick learning that Nina was performing on her training, or for the 'undying jellyfish' -whatever those happened to be-. He was getting a bit concerned for his friend. He was a stranger to the bends but there was one cure all he knew. A good swig of hearty, strong schnapps. Steeled the soul and cleared the mind.
But... there was something bothering his sleeping hours. By the firelight when the sky above was a sea of stars and moons and the far off sounds of the steppe was naught by insects and the distant roars of the feathered lions... he could almost hear the periodic tick-tock-tick-tock of a grandfather clock. The one that stood in the grand hall of the castle in the Duchy of Voruta, the sole clock in the realm. He had once been in there alone, serving his rotation as page for the regents. The night was dark and humid, the hall stuffy from the threatening storm that loomed in the distant west.
It was an irrational fear he knew. What harm could a clock do? The hands merely went round and did not reach out to grab one and drag them into its maw like the beasts of the forest did. But... in his dreams now he could feel it. Each tick-tock, tick-tock, that was second gone. A second less. A grain of sand removed from the hourglass that was the life of Sir Rudiger Dornmauer. A second he could not reclaim, a second he could have spent riding on fleet Bob back to that house of roses and stone, to perhaps lift his mother and brothers onto some raft to lift them from the roaring waves. A second where a hammer from a knight could have hit his helmet instead of his shield, where instead his reaction had been a mere moment too slow.
It was with care that the knight and Bob accompanied Nina along her walk along the shore the next morning. Typically the knight went only in his gambeson, keeping his shield strapped to the destrier and most of his kit in the canvas bag that carried it. But for once he carried his helmet under his arm and his chest piece was strapped on. He could tell that there was something perturbing Nina... and if he was being truthful it was also a reassurance to him.
There was no question from Rudiger with Nina's warning. The storm that threatened the castle in his dream was breaking upon its walls now he knew in his guts, and that told him all he needed to know. He grabbed her arm and half drug, half guided her deeper into the grasses. Bob cantered ahead of the pair, understanding implicitly that there was something wrong. He dipped for a moment and neighed to the pair of them. A wallow, a shallow, wide depression in the ground made by animals rolling the dirt would be the best protection that they could expect right now.
"Heavenly Horsemen," gasped the knight unintentionally as he felt the wind shift and heard the whooshing of wings. There was very little question of what that could be, and how little he had to be prepared for it. A lance would be nice, some runes of fire protection, anything really other than just a sword and shield. He did not push Nina into the wallow but instead dropped in first himself and offered her a hand down if she would accept it. "Lay down along the side here and make yourself as small as possible," he ordered to her as he pointed with his free hand to the side of the wallow closest to the approaching beast. His other hand lifted the steel billowed faced helm to over his head and set it squarely on his shoulders. "Cover yourself in dirt as well. It will have less chance to smell you," the muffled voice of the knight ordered as he tightened the strap under his neck.
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