27 Lage 4385: Asking Void-Dancer

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

The problem with getting to know people in the adventuring community is that it's always changing. Adventurers seldom make a career out it. It's something you do for a few years and if you're lucky then you retire on your wealth, or if you're a bit less lucky then you get a job in the guard or in a Baron's militia or as a craft-mage or, I guess, a smith. Or something. If you're not lucky then you get killed like Dad-Dad's mom. Or worse. It's like trying to make contacts in the student community, only harder because the turnover's faster and adventurers are even less well organized. Of the three people who'd rescued Corycavy (and two other kidnap victims) with me, one has since gone missing and is probably dead and one has sworn off adventuring for life and one has emigrated to the frontier. I've been out in the Verticals with at least a dozen different people at one time or another. Even so, with Archonandi retired (how could HE retire?!?), I don't think there's anyone with whom I've been on an adventure who's still an adventurer in Vheshrame Mene. That's why I asked him for a recommendation because Archonandi would know who's trustworthy but still I'd rather go with people I knew. There's just no substitute for personal experience.

And I did know one person who still adventured sometimes and I dashed off to see him even though -- if I'd thought about it -- I would've known what his answer would be. But I was in a rush so I didn't think about it.

Asking Void-Dancer

Void-Dancer was outside the Temple of Reflections in the Void. He and Nightbloom were studying a faded section on the giant Illusidor version of a Locador spell-blossom and discussing how to fix it as I dashed up.

Voidsy turned to one side to look at me when I skidded to a stop beside them. "No," he said.

Nightbloom's antenna kinked. I caught my breath and blinked at him. "But I haven't even -- "

"No."

" -- asked you anything yet."

"I thought we'd save time and skip to my answer. This is the fourth time this week, Delight-in-Justice. I do not care why you are here or what you want this time, the answer is: No."

"Shouldn't you -- " Nightbloom started in a low undertone. She broke off at a sharp look from my brother.

"No, I should not," he snapped at her before turning back to me. "I have dealt with your problems three times this week already, Delight-in-Justice. I still have to finish researching the matter of hCevian and report my findings to the Wizard Sazandigraa. Unlike some Orren I might name, I am possessed not merely of a job but of a vocation. A vocation which is not, need I add, 'bailing my sister out of her latest predicament.'"

"Um ... about hCevian. Sythyrs asked me to ask you not to show zir journal around."

"Of course not." He narrowed his eyes at me. "Is that really all you came here to say?"

I ducked my head, tail drooping. " ... no I was going to say that I've got a job and it'll pay my rent and everything I just need a few more people to -- "

That was as far as he let me get. "No. Do you have your scroll on you?"

"Yes?" I handed it to him as he held out his hand.

Void-Dancer tapped the case once and drew it out. He searched down it, then returned it to me with one finger pointing at a particular line. "Here. Tell me what this says."

"... 'but do not come and whine to me at the end of the week about how desperate you are for rent money,'" I read. "I guess this means you won't come on the adventuring assignment with me."

"What possessed you even to ask me that? I am a priest of "Here", not an adventurer."

"You've been to the Verticals! Sometimes. That's adventuring."

Void-Dancer rolled his eyes. "I have a vocation to "Here". If it is the will of my god that I do field work, I will do it without complaint. If it is the will of my sister, she can damn well solve her own lozen crisis."

Nightbloom had stepped a bit away from us but she hadn't actually left, and her antenna were flat against her head. Her mandibles clicked but she didn't say anything.

"Can I borrow Grandma's serpent rapier at least?" I asked Void-Dancer.

"Have you ever used a serpent rapier? Do you even know how to use an ordinary rapier?"

"... maybe kinda?"

"No."

Mask of Infinity came out of the temple, calling out, "How's it coming? Ah, hallo, Delight."

I waved to Mask of Infinity while my brother answered him without taking his eyes from me. "It will go faster when this interruption ends." Void-Dancer crossed his black-robed arms over his chest. "Go away, sister."

I slunk back. "All right I'll see you later byeee Voidsy! Take care Nighters, Mask of Infinity!" I waved to everyone. Mask of Infinity said good-bye too but Nightbloom was staring so hard at Void-Dancer she barely gave me a wave.

On the other paw, there's something to be said for adventuring with strangers.

Comments

[zeeth_kyrah]

At least you'll know more people who can do stuff like that.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Right! How am I supposed to meet new people if I just stick with people I already know? This'll go a lot better I'm sure.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

So Void-Dancer was being too mean even for the priests of "Here"?

...if you're not really a warrior you're probably better off with a staff anyway. Or a spear. Or maybe three shields if you can get someone to turn you into a khtsoyis.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Oh no Void-Dancer wasn't being mean! Not reeeally. That's just how he is I don't think he means it. Not really.

You're probably right but I always wanted to learn to use a serpent rapier Void-Dancer's GREAT with it. I normally use a staff with a meng spear tip on one end for thrusting. And mostly parry with it because I'm not very good with it.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

There are some weapons that are designed to be REALLY intuitive to use and have rank amateurs not be terrible at them. The basics of what to do with a machete or a cutlass can be grasped quite easily... Rapier, on the other hand, is NOT one of those weapons!

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Right that's why I need to borrow one so I can practice!

... not that Voidsy is ever going to let me borrow it anyway. *sigh*

Archonandi is the one who suggested I use a serpent rapier because I'm a wimp and it doesn't depend on strength like most good weapons. But they're soooo expensive I'll never have enough lozens to buy one.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Here's what I suggest. Find something (or somethings!) SIMPLE. INTUITIVE, and USEFUL. And see if you can find an illustrated fighting handbook and bring it with you (or I could maybe maybe find you one from my world that has illustrations that you can see with your scroll), and study stances and moves and timing and TEAM FIGHTING and stuff while you are out... you know, stuff that is very generalizable to any particular weapon, and then, when you have some more resources, figure out the weapon that most suits your physical aptitude. Just bring a bunch of wasters -- wooden practice weapons -- of as many weapon types as you can, and when you are out adventuring, play around and try to figure things out with each and every type you can manage! And don't forget friendly sparring with your companions, that is very useful!

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

What she really needs is a weapon like the Raven's Beak -- a weapon whose use somehow counts as edged weapon and knife fighting and rapier poking and spear stabbing and staff whacking and club thumping and axe hacking and archery and throwing and grappling, all at once!

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Yes that's it EXACTLY do you know a weapon like that? That's why I use a staff with a spear point but fighting with that isn't really anything at all like using a knife or a sword or even a club. They're all so DIFFERENT! It's annoying.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

See my other reply. If you use the right weapon the right way, you can figure out generalizable principles that will be universal to many other weapons, because you are learning 'fighting in melee' and not 'this weapon or that weapon'. That's why I mentioned the two handed straight sword. It can chop, slice, cut, thrust, punch, trap, or hook with the quillons, pummel with the pommel, it can be used to lever the other opponent, trip, etc. The thing is, you have to train with it in the RIGHT WAY to gain these benefits, with an eye toward applying that to other weapons (and you will probably want to spend some time with as many of those other weapons as possible, so you get an idea of what you can generalize).

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Archonandi let me try to use his two-handed sword once. Then he and everyone else in the group laughed at me and he told me never to try to use one in combat. I'm really really not strong enough for it. Really. Even with Strong Arm I'm still too weak. Archonandi's the one who gave me my spear/staff.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Well, yea, don't use it in real combat, but a two handed sword sized for your build and body (or at least a wooden simulator of one) should be very light and easy to manoeuvre, and would be good for training basics. In fact, it should probably be LIGHTER than lots of spears and staves, especially since it is balanced better. But regardless, as long as you train with as many different weapons as are fit for you, and you train with an eye toward "learning how to fight well in general", you should be fine.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Well, for melee, that can be done somewhat in general. Some things are generalizable to ALL melee weapons. Things like Stances, Guards, Counters, Footwork (like Passing Steps, Gathering Steps, and Traversing), Judgement (of how far you can reach and step and how long your weapon is), Place (putting yourself in the place in a fight where you can strike your opponent and they cannot strike you), Timing (like how to move in 'true time', so your body is moving in the appropriate order to strike a blow [hand, then body, then first foot, than second foot], or the other sets of timing, ['before,' when you have initiative, after, when you react to another's initiative, during, when both are in motion at the same time, and immediately, when you seize a new 'before']), Tempos (when an action to attack takes one beat, a beat and a half, or two beats), Leverage, the basic targets on a foe, the lines of attack your weapon takes in a strike, the basic strikes, Distance, Points of percussion (where the best strike point on the weapon is), the different ranges, how to act when weapons meet in different the different ways they can, stuff like that. In my world, the best weapon to train those sorts of basics that apply to any weapon was the two handed, straight, well balanced, double edged war sword. Fortunately, cheap wooden versions of this are passably good at this kind of training with friends.


Oh! By the way, I have been wanting to ask someone this in a completely serious manner for *years*. 'How many hit points do you have?' If that doesn't translate correctly, how about, 'Using your most familiar units of measurement for doing so, how strongly does your spirit cling to your body to prevent you from dying? Also, if you are familiar with the units of measurement that was presented to my world regarding that aspect of yours, could you convert your score to the other units?'


((OOC: A note for anyone interested in this in real life: You should totally buy this: http://www.schielhau.org/xfdvd.html if you are interested in this... for one thing, it's the best video I've ever seen for this sort of thing, and can maybe help with writing fight scenes too! It's expensive, but it is TOTALLY worth it!))

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

(( In the game the generalizable stuff is called 'CSB', it's a separate (and very useful) skill ))

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

((I Remembered there WAS one, but I couldn't remember what it was. Besides, how am I supposed to get a CHARACTER to realize that reality and adjust their training? The best I can do is encourage philosophy that more closely mirrors real world fighting))

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Archonandi estimated my vitality once but I don't remember the exact score. It was between 20 and 30 somewhere. He said it was pretty crappy for an Orren adventurer and that I should try to get stabbed or hit at least once per day while I'm on an adventure.

... I haven't really followed that advice.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Doesn't sparring, in and of itself, really beat you up and bruise you? So do lots more of that, and getting lots of hits and bruises and stuff will be an incidental benefit!

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

If you can't find any good fighting manuals, here is a link to some from my world:

http://www.thearma.org/manuals.htm

Lots of them are really old and the translation can be off, but there are illustrations in some, and those are pretty useful!

The only problem is, it would take, like, LOTS of practice and time to digest this sort of thing. You might be best just looking at the pictures and trying it out during your adventuring helped skill practice. There is some Rapier stuff in there too, of course, including manuals that can be somewhat understood from the pictures:

http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/NewManuals/Alfieri/alfieri.htm
http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/Fabris/book1/fabris_book1.htm
http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/NewManuals/CapoFerro/capoferro.htm

Also unfortunately, this is a private, pay to enter organization, so they do not put all their translations of manuals and training methods for public viewing. I will have to go looking around elsewhere for equivalents for those "members only" stuff for you. But spend a few hours browsing that manuals site, looking at the manuals they DO provide, and looking at the pictures, as I am sure that unless you can manage to do that "Orren focusing on this sort of thing to the exclusion of all else" for two weeks straight, looking at those manuals and practicing and sparring with friends and stuff, you probably won't be able to digest anything BUT the pictures!

Or, presumably, you could buy a local fighting manual from some master that wants to spread their name well, but you are somewhat poor, are you not?

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Oh that's a good idea! We already left so I can't get more practice weapons but maybe some of the others can lend me theirs. Trust needs the practice too!

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

You've gotta try and optimize that adventuring-fuelled training time, to apply to the sorts of things that will actually be useful in your life! After all, you ARE risking your life, so you better get something worthwhile from that risk... and as long as you are appropriately thankful and reverent to the gods for allowing this system and allowing you to use it to the fullest, there shouldn't be anything wrong with getting the most out of it, should there?

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Uh, correct me if I am wrong, but isn't a rapier not real good against anything with, um, a decent amount of armor? or chitin? Here, rapiers and their smaller cousins, smallswords, were civilian weapons used in places where people didn't go around wearing armor, for whatever reason...

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

A regular rapier isn't much good for killing things especially things with tough hides or armor noooo. But a serpent rapier is special and it can be really dangerous if you're good! Also it's good for doing some fancy manuevers which I don't actually know yet. But how am is supposed to learn if I can't use one while adventuring?

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

I hear there are people who teach you how to use weapons! For pay, usually. But maybe you should talk to this Mirhandrax, who may be able to teach you some things along the way. And who might know some people who can be recruited to fill out the group!

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

But classes are soooo sloooow! And expensive! It's much faster and cheaper to learn by adventuring!

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

You are such an Orren. :)

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

*beams* thank you!

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Buy a manual (or use some of the ones I showed you) and practice the things it says while adventuring! It's the best of both worlds!

[terrana.livejournal.com]

The learn-faster-while-adventuring thing is extremely useful, it strikes me. There must be some way to invoke it using a Mentador and/or Spiridor effect. Hm...

Then again, annoying the gods by abusing the system like that might count as an adventure in itself, with similar survival rates. Only one way to find out! I have to find someprime willing to try it for me!

...except I'm only personally aware of you and Sythyry, and the latter lives with a nendrai of all things and so gets the "bonus" anyway.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

I've heard there's a Mentador spell that does it but ewwwwwww Mentador! Also you get immune to it after a few casts or something. If it doesn't melt your brain and turn you into a drooling idiot. Ewwww Mentador icky.