Demios Training Grounds

[Bladvyx]

OOC: Continued from here.

These were dark times. And in such times it was important to be able to avoid the many dangers that loomed across the world of Telath. A dwarf named Daragin, who had seen many patterns in his life, was well aware of that fact. And for that reason, he had begun the creation of the Demios Training Grounds, which were now standing proudly in the outskirts of Demios. Daragin was a stouthearted dwarf, who, in his younger days, had been on many adventures. This had given him an outstanding aptitude for survival, which he was now ready to pass on to others – For a price of course.

With him, he had a thëlyri elf named Milthrandir, particularly capable with bows, though he had many other virtues. Together, they had created a small encampment that served as a source of training for the many adventurers in Demios. It consisted of a few tents, and a large barren area, where the training took place. Two horses were tethered to a tree. One of them was rather small, but fat, and was eagerly chewing as much grass as it’s leash allowed it to reach. The other was a noble black stallion, which appeared to be in excellent shape.

Near the camp, there was a small forest, where the students could practice making a campfire, finding the herbs they needed, and suchlike. The grounds had everything that was needed to teach the skills it advertized on a sign which could be seen in a few places on this location. Newcomers were noticed fairly soon and a woman came to them when they were in the middle of reading the sign, asking what they would like to learn. She was a young human by the name Sarade, with black hair and a blue dress most of the time. "may I help you?" Her voice was always sweet as was her smile charming. After hearing all the details and receiving money for the training, she'd give the name of the teacher who'd come for the paid lessons and the brightening when they would start. There was a total of 15 teachers working in the University Training Grounds.

Long sword
~Beginner - 250 crowns
~Intermediate - 500 crowns
~Advanced - 900 crowns

Short sword
~Beginner - 200 crowns
~Intermediate - 400 crowns
~Advanced - 800 crowns

Dagger
~Beginner - 150 crowns
~Intermediate - 300 crowns

Katana
~Beginner - 300 crowns
~Intermediate - 600 crowns

Axe/Hammer
~Beginner - 200 crowns
~Intermediate - 400 crowns

Spears/Pikes/Staves
~Beginner - 300 crowns
~Intermediate - 600 crowns

Marksmanship/Bow/Crossbow
~Beginner - 200 crowns
~Intermediate - 400 crowns
~Advanced - 800 crowns

Survival
~Beginner - 50 crowns
~Intermediate - 150 crowns
~Advanced - 300 crowns

Horseback Riding
~Beginner - 100 crowns
~Intermediate - 200 crowns
~Advanced - 300 crowns

Tracking
~Beginner - 75 crowns

[Demetri Valentine]

Travelling the Demios grounds, Demetri searched for this training area he heard about, suppose to be new, and well managed. Reaching a small area of tents and fences, the Human spotted two horses tied to a tree and he suddenly filled with joy. Either he had come across someones home, or he had found the training grounds that were newly set-up, and that he was eagerly searching for. Running towards a main tent, or what seemed to be, the human's small glittering eyes caught a swept of wind, making them water slightly. Brushing them with his right hand and re-adjusting his cloak, he continued towards the probable office of the training grounds (or he hoped). Seeing a dwarf nearby, he sparked up,

"Serale Sir! I am Demetri Valentine, Valentine for short if you will. Is this the Training grounds I've heard about or just your hovel?"

Smiling like he was accustomed to, he then continued to peer around the grounds while waiting for a response from the dwarf, standing next to a strong looking elf. A Thëlyri elf... He wondered. In his travels he had seen many Thëlyri elves, walking about, in taverns, in books and what not. Demetri was always interested in elven friends, or for that matter, any friends.

He awaited recognition.

[Bladvyx]

"Aye, this is the place." The dwarf replied, giving a wide smile. "And I am Daragin", he introduced himself. His elven friend could be spotted in the back, practising his skills at archery. An arrow pierced through the air, impaling a tree, most likely the one he aimed for. The dwarf turned his head, and grinned, showing his large, rather yellow teeth.

"So, what kind of training are you looking for?" He asked the young adventurer.

[Demetri Valentine]

Grinning that he had certainly found the right place; a dwarf and an elf training ground, the Human continued to daze his eyes of in different directions of the landscape. Snapping back to reality when he was enquired about what sort of training, he immediatly piped up,

"I was thinking about Short Sword, but I've chosen the Long Sword. Is there any way I could get to Intermediate Long Sword? Also, I'd like to take a couple Horseback Riding Lessons, if I could.

Playing with his cloak between his fingers, he awaited the friendly Dwarf's reply.

[Bladvyx]

It seemed as though the Merfolk assault had caused the citizens of Demios to pay more heed to the need for protection. Daragin chuckled merrily at the thought of his profit of this event. He convinced himself that he was not greedy though - He was merely doing his part for the city, by teaching it's denizens how to fight and defend themselves.

"Good to see a young man with such ambition." He said with a hoyful smirk on his face. "Seeking training are we? Well you've come to the right place. We offer the finest weapon training in all of Demios."

"Milthrandir!" He shouted, his eyes drifting to the cloaked man who could be seen in the background, practising with his bow.

The elf shot one last arrow from his bow, turned, and walked sedately towards the dwarf and the newly arrived adventurer. "Serale", he said as he approached. Daragin's smile grew even wider, if possible, than before. "This young man is in need of longsword and horseback training, can you fit that into your schedule?"

Milthrandir pondered for a while, dipping into his pocket, looking for something. "Well let's see", he mumbled under his breath. "These are busy times, with the merfolk attacking and all. I can only fit in one lesson, it will have to be either swordsmanship, or riding. I cannot offer you both." He said, with an apoligizing expression on his face.

[Demetri Valentine]

damn.... Demetri thought hard. He was really looking forward to both the trainings, as he never knew the situation with the merfolk invasion was so bad. In fact, he hadn't heard very much at all in the subject, and just nodded to pretend he did. Trying to keep a rugged smile, he pondered about which was to be the better choice. Obviously right now, weapons training would be more useful, and horseback riding was only a dream for him, stables.. horses... his passion. Noticing he was staring at the sky, he veered his eyes back to the elf, and replied,

"Long Sword then please, Milthrandir. If it is all you can afford to spare me right now, so be it, you have my thousand thank yous."

Grinning he then proceeded to take out his Crowns sachel, and nimbly untied the leather draw strings. Reaching in and pulling out 300 Crowns, Demetri added,

"Will this be enough for the training? I would like to start as soon as possible, and get your thorough examination and experience." Looking into the elves deep eyes, he sensed this person to be very strong, his emotions were different to Valentine, but he did not know why.

[Bladvyx]

The thëlyri glanced quickly at the sign, as if to ensure that he informed Demetri of the right price. "250 crowns will do." He said, smiling, not seeming to be much troubled by the current situation, even though the Training Grounds were in the outskirts of the city Demios, and therefore more endangered than most other places.

Daragin gave a hearty chuckle. "Well, I'll let you two get to work." And then he turned, walking into a nearby tent. Milthrandir held out his left hand, and accepted the two hundred and fifty golden crowns. "Let's begin then." Said Milthrandir, gesturing with his hand, for Demetri to follow.


OOC: Training thread is here. Continue there

[Demetri Valentine]

Grinning at the thëlyri, he farewelled Daragin, and followed Milthrandir. Looking to the sky as if to say, 'here I go', Demetri wiped his forehead and clenched his midnight cloak, continueing with the elf.

[Adamon Mylenthar]

The young man did not know what he had expected, but he certainly had not thought that the island’s training facility would consist of nothing but a few tents and a barren field. The academy in Ieffreon had been made of pure white marble. The temple in Diana where he had received his druidism training had been filled with flowers. It had been full of life. This here ... this here looked less than impressive, compared to what he was used to. Still, he made his way over to the tents. While the training grounds did not look like much, that did not mean that the training he would receive would not be good. In the end appearances meant nothing, and the only thing that mattered was what was hidden behind the plain exterior.

He was proof to that. He was a vysstichi, looked like a vysstichi, but he was as far as possible from the race, had nothing to do with their evil ways, did not worship Haya or Jorel, took no pleasure in killing, had never trained in necromancy. He had not been a vysstichi all his life, but only for a few months, had been changed, had deed and been reborn. He was a vysstichi, but that circumstance was not instantly noticeable. A cloak, made of fine deep blue velvet was draped around his slender form, the hood pulled deep into his face, not so much because he wanted to hide what he was but because the sunlight simply hurt ... a lot. The snow only made things worse.

The fact that the man who ran the training school was obviously a dwarf did nothing for the elf. He did not hate dwarves, had never hated them. He hated orcs, could not appreciate lizardmen, but dwarves were merely strange because they were so short, because they were so incredibly hairy. He reached for one of his longknives, a simple weapon made of elven steel, stroke it thoughtfully. One of his ebony hands brushed across the other knife that had a spell imbued within, a spell that would make his skin as hard as steel whenever he wanted. He had never had any formal training, had never taken classes in anything but herbalism and druidism, but for some reason he had known how to use a knife after the events in the Pegasi Woods, after the mystic Rubeus Khalon had saved his life and tampered with his mind. He had used the weapon a couple of times since then, in the Pegasi Woods and later on the trip to Jaedaxia with the human Toshi, had killed ... He still did not know what kind of creature it was that he had killed. He only knew that it had wanted to eat his flesh and drink his blood.

He wanted to know what real training would be like, had to improve his skills. If he wanted to survive the trip northwards that he would have to make in a couple of cycles he had to practice as much as possible, learn as much as possible. The druids in Diana had refused to promote him to Journeyman, had refused to teach him, had told him that it would be dangerous if he would be promoted from Initiate to Apprentice and from Apprentice to Journeyman within a few brightenings. Thus he had sought other means to become stronger, better. There were a powerful Nosferatu and his minions waiting for him in Jaedaxia, and he had to be prepared. He had given the man who had saved his life the promise that he would hunt a woman down in the northern city, a woman that had unfortunately caught the vampire’s attention and was involved in a prophecy of sorts.

“Serale ...” the young dark elf said. His voice was pleasant. He spoke with a cultured accent that was more elven than vysstichi. He was calm. An ebony hand moved towards the hood, pulled it back a little, revealing a face that still had not lost the softness of youth. “I’m looking for intermediate longknife training ...” he stated. “I trust that it is offered here?” He showed his weapon to the dwarf, a blade that was somewhere between a dagger and a short sword in length. “How much is it?”

[Bladvyx]

Daragin was in a dillema, a rather large one. According to the sign, longknife was not actually offered. But it was not rare that he and his customers negotiated their way into training something other than what the sign displayed. The problem was something else. Unbeknownst to many was it that Milthrandir had grown a great reluctance for the race of dark elves. Daragin himself was unable to teach a weapon such as a knife, and he was unsure whether Milthrandir would refuse to teach a dark elf to fight.

"Erm... Our schedule is rather busy at the moment, I will check with Milthrandir, to see if he has time for the training." With these words he strolled out, towards Milthrandir, who was practising with his archery skills. After a short conversation, Milthrandir walked up to the man, while Daragin entered a tent.

"Serale, I'm Milthrandir, longknife training will cost you 350 crowns, agreed?", he said, doing his best to to cover up his contempt. Though his greeting was a bit shorter, and less friendly than it usually was.

[Adamon Mylenthar]

Longknife training was not offered, the vysstichi had noticed it when he had read the sign, but the weapon was similar enough to a dagger or a shortsword that training should not pose any major problem. In fact he even thought it possible that a man that possessed enough skill with the shortsword, that was knowledgeable enough would be able to instruct him as well. As the dwarf stated that their schedule was rather busy and that he had to check with somebody called Milthrandir, the young man only nodded and watched the short creature walk away, towards the elf with the bow.

The vysstichi narrowed his eyes fractionally as the other elf approached, looked him over, frowned lightly, not so much because he did not seem to be all that eager to train somebody whose skin was dark, but rather because he had never seen such an elf before. He had been in Jaedaxia, in Archadoon, near Taralon, had seen dracons, moriquendi, elves of the lightborn kind, but this was the first time he was facing a sea elf, and it was showing. A faint look of surprise registered on the young man’s ebony face.

“Agreed ...” he said and reached into the pouch at his belt, removed four banknotes, three for hundred crowns and one for fifty crowns. “When can I begin?” he asked. The odd elf’s contempt was obvious, but the vysstichi did not make a comment about it. He could not care less, as long as he got what he wanted, as long as Milthrandir did not throw him out, as long as he did not insult him. It was after all justified. Vysstichi were a cruel, evil race, and there was no way that the sea elf could know that he was different, that the vysstichi in front of him was in fact a druid, that he lived in Diana and knew the High Priestess of Carmelya personally, that there was more to the young dark elf than met the eye.

[Bladvyx]

"Immedietly", said the sea elf. Speaking as few words as possible to this Vysstichi, he ambled through the Training grounds, to a grassy knoll, which served as a great vantage-point over the city of Demios. Had anyone who knew the otherwise warm-hearted elf spectated at this moment, they would have been surprised at his coldness. The sole reason for this training was to earn money, and not disappoint his friend; Daragin.

OOC: Continue here

[Thayogar]

Thayogar ambled aimlessly down the path. He was lost in a swirl of thoughts when something pricked him in the arm. His hand went for the dagger on his belt and he turned. It was only a sighn, there was a splinter of wood sticking out which had pricked him. Thayogar looked to the sign and read it out loud.

"Demios Training Grounds, hmmm dunt have one clue on how to use this durned thing, might as well. 150 gold. Sure have a clue how to spend gold though."

Thayogar chuckled to himself as he made his way down the path. For the moment there was noone he could see, but there was sure to be somone around. Behind the tent perhaps? He called out.

"Haaalllloooooooooo?"

[Minerva]

OOC: Hiya, just a heads up- your signature (the text that goes below what you write when you post) is only allowed to be 6 lines maximum. Please could you edit this? Thanks.

IC:

The man's calls were answered by a long, drawn out, and fairly impatient "Shhhhhhh!!!!". A sound that, apparently, had been spawned from the lips of a rather disgruntled looking dwarf. Not to say that he would not have been a rather cheerful fellow at any other time- it simply seemed that on this particular occasion he was reluctant to show much of a degree of courtesy and cordiality to this newcomer. With a wild flapping of arms and fingers pointing towards a group of students concentrating intently on lighting a fire, the gruff-looking man seemed to calm down significantly one he was certain that Thayogar would not be making any more loud noises in his presence.

“What do ye be wantin', laddie?”

Dropping his gaze to the dagger at the man's belt, the dwarf's previous expression of discontent was soon being replaced drastically with a beaming smile, a cheery thing that lit up the corners of his eyes and puffed out his ruddy cheeks.

“I suppose you'll be wantin' to learn how to use that thing, eh? Well, Milthrandir is available for lessons at the moment, but it'll be costin' ye 150 gold crowns for the basic training. How's that sound to you?”

Still wearing that broad smile across the expanse of his rough features, the dwarf awaited some answer from the human with an admirable degree of patience, happy to do business with Thayogar where training was concern, so long as it involved acquiring that little bit more money into his own possession.

[Thayogar]

"Gah, ye read me like a book. Serale sir dwarf, and yes i'd love to do that, very much. Not much ye can do with a dagger if ye dont know how to use it. Cept cut dead stuff praps. Well yeah, i want that dagger training."

Thayogar chuckled to himself as he fished the 150 crowns out of his pouch. He handed over the money and then asked a question.

"Now this trainin wouldnt happen to include throwin now would it? I kinda partial to keepin my distance when i only have a dagger."