Skirting the City (Roald, Open)

[Deleted]

It was time to part ways from the caravan she had been traveling with. They would be able to safely pass through Helkorth, but some of the members warned that there had been a cleansing in the city as of late, and her kind hadn't come out of it very well. It would probably be better for her to skirt the city. She was frustrated, how could her people allow such uprising from the humans, she would have to find out what her people were doing about this situation. In the meantime she would rather keep her head than to demonstrate her indignity to those who would have it. 

So around the city she would go, she would try to catch another caravan on the other side of the city once they started heading north towards Morith. In the meantime she could attempt to gather some herbs during her cross country trek. If nothing else she could sell them and she didn't really have anything else to do in the meantime. 

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K15, Gather I, -Earthen Bounty: X2 yields for gathering herbs and plants.
No Idea how difficulty works for gathering

i61PbsVl !39

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She wasn't really sure what the herbs and plants were, she could figure that out later, but she continued walking keeping an eye out for whatever plants caught her attention.

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K15, Gather I, -Earthen Bounty: X2 yields for gathering herbs and plants.
No Idea how difficulty works for gathering

!64

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I mean she was all alone walking across the region skirting the city, what else was she going to do to pass the time. She could practice her magic she guessed? or she could keep picking flowers. Magic it was. She hadn't channeled the earth since the academy, she was probably a bit rusty. She reached down to touch the ground, the earth rising up and enveloping her in an earthen layer of protection.

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K=15, Channeling I, Earth I
I'm not even sure if I'm supposed to roll, let alone of the difficulty

!55 (success on simple, if I even need to roll)

Roll Unnecessary. Skills/spells execute automatically unless there is a rolling component to the skill, provided the caster/user has enough of the resource (MP/Stamina) to do so. --ADMIN··

[Roald]

Roald also was on the plains, except instead of it's other occupant who was picking pretty flowers he was here trying to get himself something nicer for his breakfast. Whenever he wanted to make his food a little more tasteful he'd come down here and try to gather some dragonfruits, they added just that extra bit more taste to his meals and helped him to wake up and stay alert which was very useful when he was tired or had a long day ahead of him. That and it gave him something to do, living as he did could become boring even to someone with an incredible amount of patience and capacity to entertain himself such as him, so going out into the plains and gathering fruits was something that he enjoyed doing. 

The plains were far enough from the city that he could pass without much fear of being seen, especially if he skirted them at the point when they're furthest from the city and nearest to his residence anyway, then there was an incredibly limited chance of being seen. It was to the point were it was almost negligible, but it gave him a chance to stretch his legs and stroll through the plains while allowing him also to gather some tasty foods for himself.

Roald slowly plodded along, moving at a slow but steady pace as his eyes scanned the floor and small bushes that grew around, looking for anything that could be useful or that he knew would work well with food, he hadn't much experience with many plants other than the dragonfruit and so anything that just looked useful he'd keep and transport back with him anyway to store. 

He stayed fairly close to the bloody foothills as he walked though and didn't consciously pay a large amount of attention to anyone around him, he was fairly sure that no one other than the odd farmer would even consider coming this way so he didn't have to worry as much. 

---

Stamina: 44/45

Gathering three times:
7ZWeK0x2


··

[Deleted]

It felt nice to use her magic, she felt protected in her earthen shell. Like the earth was embracing her, keeping her safe. As she pondered her feelings about the spell, she heard a noise in the distance. It was the distinct sound of someone walking through brush. Whoever it was wasn't even trying to move quietly. She began to move cautiously towards the sound, her dagger drawn (before it gave off light). There really shouldn't be anyone else out here, she wasn't about to let them get the drop on her. She didn't think to lower the earthen armor either, she might need it to protect her as she approached the stranger.

As she crested the hill, she saw a human man keeping his eyes low to the ground, it seemed he was doing much the same as she, gathering plants. She was not sure she could trust a human, especially not one looking as wretched as this one. She kept her dagger out and she remained covered in the Earthen barrier as she observed the man, she wouldn't hide, but she wasn't going to call his attention to her either. Perhaps she could ascertain whether the man posed a threat or not from a distance.

[Azuloth]

Results:
Nadera
-Success!
-Failure

6 Dragonfruit
1 Helixan
1 Foxberry
3 Leaves

Roald
-Failure
-Failure
-Failure

[Roald]

Today unfortunately he wasn't finding much, in fact that would be an understatement, to say it correctly he was finding absolutely nothing that looked even vaguely interesting or that he could put in his food to enhance it's taste. Still though that wasn't something that particularly annoyed him, this was only a way to occupy his time more than anything and he could go without the little niceties or strange plants that he occasionally picked up, he'd done so before for long periods of time when nothing was available and he could quite easily do so now.

The stroll was more to his flavour anyway, it was nice to just stretch his legs and walk about a bit rather than staying in his small shack working the forge all day or designing new metalworkings. Nature was always a calming thing for him, it helped to sooth him and remind him of what he was striving to become and how far he'd come from what he'd left behind. He needed this immersion in nature today of all days, he'd woken up already into one of his memories and needed to dispel that dark cloud that it left over his mind or it would linger and ruin the rest of his day as well as many others until he could.

Sun was a good way of doing this, sun and brightness and clean air, all the things that counteracted the dark melancholy miasma that lingered over his mind, he could push it to the side easily enough from practice but he'd prefer to just erase it quickly now and have a wonderful walk while he did so. There was no harm in staying out longer, or rather there shouldn't be, if he just continued his stroll and called it an extended forage for goods, he needed to clear his head and better now than never.

Once again he failed to look around him, the open air and sunlight had lulled him into a more relaxed state as his head slowly cleared, his mind thinking more of watching the ground for anything of use and trying to clear his head more and as such he still hadn't noticed the Elkagr woman watching him. 

---

Stamina: 43/45

Gathering three times again
Wh|iLwbU


··

[Deleted]

She observed as the man meandered below her. Despite the fact that she had a rather earthen appearance right now, she was not particularly inconspicuous standing at the crest of the hill. The fact that he had not noticed her yet spoke profoundly to the man's nature. A bumbling imbecile. Even bumbling imbeciles can be dangerous... or useful she supposed. More often than not they were neither, but it was always good to find out which before leaving one at your back. She waited a bit longer, letting the man look around for whatever he was searching for without much success. She didn't particularly want to startle him, startling imbeciles could trigger dangerous reactions, no better to wait until the right moment such that she wouldn't shatter his feeble mind.

At what she believed to be the right moment, as he basked in the sun for a moment she called out to the man, "YOU, What is your business in this area?" She knew he had as much business in the area as she, but that meant little to her, she knew her reason for being in the are, she did not know his. Ones reason for being in a place can lend to the analysis of the threat or potential one poses. She was not about to drop her spell, the spell didn't even cross her mind as something that might affect how the man would perceive her. Neither did the fact she was holding a dagger cross her mind, she might need it so she had it in hand with no thought to how it might affect the reaction of the man below. Hopefully the man had enough intelligence to be able to respond, as so far he had demonstrated all the intelligence of a rabbit, perhaps less.

[Azuloth]

Results:
Roald
-Failure
-Success
-Failure

Yield
-2 Dragonfruit.

[Roald]

Roald was wrenched from his thoughts by the voice of another, another calling out to him from not to far off, he was thrown by the idea that he'd allowed someone so close without realising and was more than slightly annoyed that he'd come across someone on this day of all with the dark mood hanging over him he was unlikely to make great company.

He turned towards the source of the voice and saw that the woman was infact looking straight at him, he was indeed the intended recipient of her yelling, meaning that he'd have to respond to her, he wasn't a rude person after all. He was about to open his mouth to respond when he looked closer at who was talking, a woman wielding a knife in her hand, a possible threat now was what he saw rather than a young and rather rude woman. It would be a bad idea to close the gap between them, she could take that as a threat after all, so instead he stayed where he was and calmly thought through his options. 

One option was to simply ignore her and walk away, she wouldn't feel threatened by someone walking away from her and ignoring her, although him fleeing could then look suspicious to her and things could escalate. He could also answer her question, he wasn't doing anything suspicious he was simply out for a stroll and to get himself some supplies after all nothing was to bad about that. The second one seemed the easiest, that and it was the least likely to arouse her suspicions and so to him was the most obvious choice, although he wasn't actually sure why he felt as if he had to answer her question of why he was here, she didn't seem to be his superior.

As he was about to open his mouth though to speak he looked more closely at her rather than her weapons, and noticed the layer of earth surrounding her. His eyes opened wide in shock as he registered this, a layer of earth surrounding her couldn't really be happening normally, it was a kind of feat usually only capable by magic to create a layer of earth around yourself that will mould to you and move with you. A mage, she most likely was a mage, the very idea of there being another mage in front of him made him stutter with his voice, "I...I'm here gathering plants and fruits" He stuttered out slowly, losing his calm mind as he raced to think of what was happening.

---

42/45

[Deleted]

Well at least he could speak, kind of. Her assessment hadn't been far off, when he opened his mouth he hesitated, stuttering. To her it demonstrated that he was a bumbling imbecile and nothing more, at least for the most part. She almost turned and walked away in that moment, but there was something about the man, something about the manner in which he stuttered that raised a flag or two, but none so far as to consider him a threat yet.

"Are you sure? You don't seem to be doing very well if that is your intent." She cut a wedge out of one of her dragonfruit with her dagger, partially to drive home the point that he was horrible at gathering things and partially because her stomach had just growled. She hadn't eaten today. "What's your name?" simpleton she didn't actually say the last word, but she thought it so loud as to almost be audible. "What are you gathering plants and fruits for?" she thought to barrage him with questions just to witness his response. "Do you live out here?" Even if he tried to answer, she would interrupt with another question, "What do you do for a living? Surely it isn't this, or you would have starved already."

[Roald]

She knew she unsettled him, her pointed rapid fire questions were a good indicator of this, and she seemed to be one of those people who got a kick from it. She rattled off question after question at Roald as he struggled to remain calm. At the same time though the very fact that she was asking these questions meant that she didn't know about him and wasn't looking for him at all, so she was another mage, maybe from the RJG, or maybe even a rogue like him. He almost chuckled slightly to himself at this idea as his old job would have been to hunt down people like her and now here he was hoping she wasn't here hunting him, but then the gravity of matters brought him back down to earth again.

As he went to answer her first she cut him off with her second, and as he went o answer that she cut him off with another, she had no real intention of letting him answer it seemed, although that was fine for him as it gave him more time to formulate answers. Not that he really needed to, they were mostly of topics he wasn't having to hide and so telling the truth was probably the best option for him for these questions. He still wasn't sure though, she had that magic around her and hadn't put away her weapon, infact she was currently cutting into a dragonfruit with it.

That reminded him, he'd managed to find two dragonfruit himself, he put those away quickly as he'd have no need for them now anyway, it also allowed him to ready his hands and be ready should he need to react, although it didn't really seem like she had any harmful intentions considering her stance. At most he figured she probably just wanted to bug him, she had a kind of superior attitude that irked him slightly but he was happy to just let her go on rather than challenge her about it.

"I never claimed to be a master at it, I just wanted something to add some flavour to take back for my breakfast. I live nearby and I'm called Roald, blacksmithing is more my thing rather than collecting flowers in a field." He was proud, he'd managed to say it all without pausing to much and had only looked marginally thrown off by her earth armour so far, hopefully she wouldn't push much further. He'd only answered because not answering would seem more suspicious, plus a lot of people around here knew his name and occupation anyway, if she was that curious she could have asked around and found out easily.

---

Stamina: 41/45

[Deleted]

He fumbled for a moment, but he eventually responded to her questions. He seemed overly proud to have just answered some questions, clearly his mind was as baked as the coals in his forge. Satisfied that the man was not a threat, she was about to turn and go on her way when she suddenly realized that in her harassment of the man, she had lost her bearings just a bit. She tried to regain them as best she could...

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K=15, Threshold 45, 30, 15, or impossible

Dbvsk8oL

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...and regain them she did. "Well Roald, better luck on your breakfast." She had no need for a blacksmith. She had no need for a human. She had absolutely no need for a human blacksmith, especially one as dull as this. She began to walk away, continuing her journey around Helkkorth as she headed to Morith. Gathering whatever caught her eye as she went.

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K15, Gather I, -Earthen Bounty: X2 yields for gathering herbs and plants. (twice)




(This is me leaving the thread unless you do something to stop me)··

[Azuloth]

Results: Nadera
-8 Items

1 Lords Glove
1 Helixan
1 Dragonfruit
1 Reeds
1 Straw
3 Leaves

[Roald]

A large sigh left his mouth soon as she was out of earshot, he'd managed to get otu of that quite nicely. His first proper conversation with a person in more years than he dared to count and he'd managed to handle himself fairly well he thought, luckily she had seemed quite posh in comparison to him and was quite self important so she hadn't even cared about him. 

He was irked of course that she'd gotten so close without him noticing though, obviously he'd become far to relaxed with his life out in the foothills, thinking he was as alert as could be. Maybe that was just his age catching up to him though, he wasn't exactly a spring chicken anymore was he, could just be that his senses were beginning to fail, it wasn't as if they shouldn't have long ago. No, he couldn't make excuses to himself, with the amount of magic that he'd at one point stored within himself and used his body should be that of a youngster for years more, he couldn't give himself an easy way out with excuses such as age. Then again, he hadn't used his magics for a long time, he refused to use them, yet without them could it be that his body was returning to something similar to what it should be for someone his age. He'd have to study this closer, but if it was then he'd have to make a decision once again, a very difficult one for someone such as him who for years had shunned usage of his magic for fear it'd turn him back into what he once was, yet he had no wish to grow old and die as one his age was likely to do soon.

For now though standing in this field and watching the woman walk away wasn't exactly going to solve any of his problems, so turning his overly large frame around he lumbered back to his shack with his head full of contradiction and difficult decisions.

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SM: 40/45