LiverisGood

The Relics

@AlidaMaria

Yea, let's go with her arriving a day early. Wouldn't make much sense for her to travel, arrive, then immediately do her job. I should have specified earlier but I think I'll get a hang of things.

The Relics

Amy entered the room and placed several papers down on unused table. The men in the room were too busy conversing with each other to notice her presence. She clapped her hands several times until the chatter died down. She motioned for them to come closer to the table.

"Gather around folks, I have our new orders. We're to patrol the West District ."

There was dissatisfied grumbling among the troops upon hearing this. Amy simply allowed the chatter to die down.

"Well, when do we start?" asked one of the soldiers.

"Our shifts starts tomorrow morning when the festival begins. The Third Platoon will be doing rounds in this area of the West District."

She pointed her finger at a red circle on a map. "There? We've drawn the short end of the stick this time!" cried aloud a soldier.

Amy held her hand up. "Now, I know there's an unsavory reputation around those parts but bear in mind it's been two years since we left the capital and as our captain tells me, it's been cleaned up over the years. Luckily, we have the morning and afternoon shifts so I don't expect to there to be much trouble. However, I expected you all to be on your best behavior. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes ma'am," the men said in unison.

"We'll be splitting into groups of four with twelve men in each group. Kormac, Mathias, Rumford, and I will be the squad leaders. You three come here."

She took out a fountain pen and a blank parchment and placed it abreast a registry. "Here's a list of everyone on the Third Platoon. We're going to make the squadrons now." Ten minutes later, the teams became formalized.

"There is one more matter. The bounty board was updated with new heads and here is a couple of them." She picked up a wanted poster and showed it around. "Just something to keep in mind on your patrols. Be ready to work tomorrow. You're free to do whatever until then. You're all dismissed."

As for myself, perhaps I should see how my brothers are doing. Maybe I'll stop by the old inn? But I do feel oh so tired from that journey. Hmm...

The Relics

@Sundered Echo

If Alessa specifically asks for a female escort, then I suppose Amy could be the escort. I don't particularly mind either way.

The Relics

"Enter."

The door opened and closed behind Amy as she saluted her superior, Jeran Minsk who stood by the window watching the streets below.

"Amy Lockwood, reporting for duty sir."

Jeran Minsk turned around. He was a man in his late forties, his wife dead for some time. He wasn't a very good looking man but he did come from a modest landowning family and stood just shy of six feet. In the two years since she had last seen him, he appeared to be more lankier.

"State your business missy," Jeran said dryly.

"It's Amy Lockwood. Not missy," Amy replied back in the same tone.

There was an uncomfortable silence in the room. Amy did not understand why she had to deal with such a difficult commander. He always gave her a hard time at any moment. His expectations and demands of her were impossible to satisfy and many of the other lieutenants under his command didn't have such a hard time. His personality didn't appear to mellow out in two years either.

"Well then Madame, what can I do for you?" Jeran said as he pulled out his chair to sit.

"M. Francis Welk sent me a letter. I was told to report to you for additional details."

Jeran sat down and rummaged through his drawers, looking for something. He found what he was looking for and moved the paper towards Amy. He motioned for her to seat. Amy made her way towards the desk, picking up the paper but she did not sit down. The paper was a map depicting patrol routes through the capital's West District.

Jeran began to talk, "As you are well aware, the King's Festival starts soon and all manner of people will attend this event. So, security will be tight in and around the capital. Our unit is responsible for the West District. I'm sure you know the types of people who lurk there."

She looked at the map in her hand. "I don't see a problem here. Surely they can't be worst than bandits on the borders? Wait, I'm patrolling through this area? That place is a thieves' den last I remembered."

"Yes and it still is although the West District has been cleaned up over the years. I'm sure it isn't any problem for someone of your caliber. You are to start today at evening. There is no problems at all I hope?"

You deliberately gave me the worst place in the capital because you wanted to see me fail or worse. Well, you get a whole 'nother thing coming at you.

Amy smiled earnestly. "None at all. I'll relay the information to my platoon. If there's nothing else, I will take my leave sir."

"You're dismissed missy."

Amy left the room and bit her thumb as she made her way downstairs to deliver the news to her men. How she wanted to burn that moron to the ground with her relic! She couldn't stand his snarky attitude. He'd never be this cold and snarky to her male colleagues, even those of lower rank than her! He singled her out simply because she was a women! And his refusal to acknowledge her name! It infuriated her!

"Don't underestimate me," she muttered under her breath.

The Relics

“To Lieutenant Amy Lockwood,

In preparation for the king’s festival, you are ordered to return as soon as possible to the capital. Details of your orders can be found by reporting to your commander. We wish for your safe and speedy return.

Sincerely,
M. Francis Welk”

There and back again. With a gentle tug of the reins, White Hare gave pause and Amy took off her helm. The rank and file of soldiers behind stopped their march. How nice it was to feel the midsummer’s wind blowing at her face! It felt like an eternity since Amy has laid her eyes upon Amayth’s magnificent distant stonewalls. Two years, two memorable years away from the only place she once called home.

Home. Where was home again? Ah yes, there was great mansion and Groundskeeper William humming himself a tune as he raked the fall leaves. Inside the dinner hall, the portrait of her grandparents hung above the fire mantle, stern and composed. The fragrance of magnolia in her old room, oh how sweet was it scent!

“Why we’re stopping lieutenant? Something the matter?” asked a soldier.

“Nothing, just enjoying the view for a little bit. It has been awhile. Quite a spectacle they are making by the lake.”

“Preparations for the festivities it appears. Nothing better than being home right lieutenant?”

“…Yes. Yes, I suppose you are right corporal. There is no place better than being home. Hyah!”

The city also reminded her of something else. Her family, her former family to be precise, what were they up to all these years? Father no doubt was trying to climb the social ladder after falling down quite a bit no thanks to her after all these years. That old hag of a stepmother was probably up to no good, inflating her own vain sense of self worth. If she knew her younger brother, he was probably wasting the family’s fortune on booze and women. It would be very unlikely he would be holding a steady job.

Then, there were her two older brothers, the only family that mattered to her anymore. How were they doing? Did she have any cute nephews and niece? Since her exile, she made no contact with them because she was now a “stranger.”

She found herself absentmindedly gazing upon the serene lake. Not too long ago, she could have only dreamed of the places outside the storied walls. Ever since she made the fateful choice to join the military, she felt she had seen a myriad of things both good and bad, of how the “other side lived”, things that she would not have experienced if she had continued with her old sheltered life. They arrived at the main gates and the gatekeeper held his hand up, stopping Amy.

“Who are you and those band of men behind you?”

“Red Lion’s Lt. Amy Lockwood, Third Platoon.” She presented her badge. The gatekeeper inspected it briefly and handed it back to Amy

“The Red Lion Company? You must be that female officer a few years back. Never thought I’d see you in person. What brings you here? Coming here on vacation?”

“I’m afraid not though that would be great. We were recalled to provide extra security for the festival.”

“Hmm…well you should check the bounty boards then. Those are always up in pubs and I’m sure there’s bound to be a few somewhere in the barracks. These occasions will be bound to attract unsavory types. The more eyes the better.”

“Hopefully there won’t be any need for that. I do want to take it easy, especially when it’s my first day back to the capital.”

“Mhm. It is a joyous occasion.”

Once inside, Amy Lockwood led her troops to the local garrison. “You can do what you want for now but don’t wander off too far. I’ll need to meet with the commander and get our new orders. It shouldn’t take that long.”

She left her men to their devices and went to the third floor to get her new orders.

The Relics

Fallenreaper said
Alright then. Currently, Roan's on the run as a known fugitive, it's possible his brother Angus could've put up a reward for Roan's capture though its much higher for his death.

Since Amy was called back for extra security, she could see the bounty poster and be on the look out for Roan while on duty. Maybe put Roan in jail and have him break the iron bars in his were form during midnight at the festival and terrorize the night. Be an early antagonist.

I'll think of some more interactions once we have all the CS finalized.

Estermere - A Medieval Fantasy Roleplay

Well, I will have to find time to read 345 IC post (as of this post) to see how the world works and what is happening so far before I submit one.

Estermere - A Medieval Fantasy Roleplay

Are you taking new CS by any chance?

The Relics

I thought Roan's sense of hearing and smell was absurdly high until I googled "Wolf sense of smell and hearing" and got the several pages extolling the wolf's keen senses and matched Roan's descriptions when I compared them.

Wolves be scary.

The Relics: Character Sheets

Amy Lockwood

Name: Amy Lockwood formerly Amelia Beauchene
Age: 25

Gender: Female

Faction/Allegiance: Othean military

Relic Description:
A ring where the band is inscribed in an language long forgotten. It cannot be taken off. The bridge of the ring appears to be able to fit a gem. This ring allows Amelia to evoke the elemental powers of fire. To do this, the ring convokes the powers of the spirits nearby. For fire to grow, it must consume. In a place such as a tundra, the ring will likely fizzle out smoke at best. So long as she can see the object, the flames can appear at any distance. However, the further away her target the weaker the flames will be. Amelia believes that the missing gem may increase the power of the ring and she has her suspicions that the better her mentality the stronger the flames. Without the elements associated with fire, Amelia is fairly certain the ring is mostly powerless. Mostly.

She found her ring when she cut opened the stomach of a large sea bass.

Appearance:


Flaws:
1. Raised from nobility, Amelia can be stubborn to an unreasonable degree, especially if things do not go her away.
2. She is eager to prove her worth which can be taken advantage of. She can be overambitious.
3. She has a phobia of cats.
4. Hotheaded at times

Skills:
Horsemanship- She was trained until she could handle a horse on her own. Affectionately calls her mount "White Hare".
Swordsmanship- Trained with the longsword
Cooking- Making new recipes is always fun to do! That and it is important to learn how to cook when you no longer rely on servants to do that job. The joys of independence.
Nobility's Education- Growing up in a noble's household, she was taught to read as having an illiterate daughter would bring shame to the family. She hasn't paid too much attention during music and dance classes though.
Leadership: Despite the sexism in the military, she has become a capable leader to the grumble of naysayers.

Biography: Amelia Beauchene was born as the third child of four and the only daughter of Markus Beauchene, a nobleman of Amaryth and politician. Growing up like many noblewoman at her age, she had certain expectations to fulfill. She was taught what proper manner and etiquette she should have. She was taught how to dance and entertain at social settings and to be meek and submissive to her future husband. At the age of seven, she was betrothed to another boy that she never met.

Amelia yearned for something more. Much of the lessons pertaining to how to become a proper lady bored her mind. Like all noble children, she was taught to read and write and she find herself immersing in fables to pass time. She eagerly listened to her eldest brother’s war stories much to the surprise of her father. She took archery lessons to heart and she enjoyed equestrian lessons. At the age of twelve, she got her father to consent to get her a tutor on swordsmanship in exchange for taking her other lessons more seriously (she tried to do the bare minimum).

Tragedy struck when she was 14. Her mother, compassionate and ever encouraging of “Our little Dame” passed away from a terminal illness. Within a few months she finally met her betrothed, Joseph Cormac. He was three years older than her and fair but his disposition struck her as vain and impulsive. Their first encounter ended badly when she slapped her future husband in the face after he gave humiliating and hurtful commands to one of Amelia’s playmates and closest friend.

The blowout that followed sullied their family name creating a rift between her and her father though she was to still wed to Joseph. For the next two years, she was isolated within the manor by her father’s orders though her lessons continued. Two years later, her father remarried to Eliza Halfor who had three children of her own, all of them younger than her.

She did not get along with her stepmother who always seemed to antagonize her at every chance. To avoid embarrassing her father more, she would keep a tight lip and put up a polite façade. Her stepsiblings rarely talked to her either and avoided her as if they were told to do so.

When she was seventeen, a family incident occurred at a dinner party. This resulting fallout ended in the disownment of Amelia Beauchene and her expulsion from the place she called home. Her arranged marriage was annulled and given to one of her two stepsisters.

Suddenly thrust into a society foreign from her own, she had to adjust quickly. The question was how? Wandering the streets penniless, the second brother approached her. He did not lent her money, telling her that she must earn it but he would provide shelter at a shack near his home. The second brother put her to work at an inn disguised as a peasant where she became an apprentice cook and sometimes interacted with the commoners as a waiter. Sometimes, the favorite eldest brother came to check up on her but could do little else because of his military obligations.

The inn proved to be a great experience for she met all manner of people there and eagerly listened to traveler's tales. For nearly a year, she worked at the inn doing the very chores her maids would once do. One day while she was gutting a king sea bass, she found a strange ring inside its gut. Without hesitation, she put on the ring, guts and all before she realized what she done. That was how she found her relic and set the kitchen on fire.

For the unexplained and mysterious fire, the inn was shut down for repairs. Around this time, a member of the Royal Relic Constabulary somehow found her contemplating by a lake and requested her to join them. Though she found the offer tempting, she had other plans in mind. She made up her mind to join the military instead as Amy Lockwood.

Her two brothers tried to convince her otherwise but she was adamant. She went to the nearest recruitment office and applied to become an officer much to the disbelief of the recruiter as women in the army, much less one applying to train to become an officer, was quite a rare sight. The eldest brother promised to pay for the tuition anonymously and in secret if she someone did make the academy.

She passed the grueling written preliminary exam to get into the Officer’s Academy but just getting the marks for her physicality (she never felt more thankful for the year and a half doing physical labor at the inn). She knew that the men there would be larger and stronger than her and to compensate for that, she’d need to both strengthen her body and use her lighter frame to her advantage during spars. The Academy was full of naysayers that only spurred her on to push her body to her limits and become the top of her class.

The Royal Relic Constabulary informed the school that she held a relic and she was pulled aside for special personalized classes for relic holders and much of the tuition was waived too. The purpose was to discover the strength and usages of the relics and to also keep relic users on file something she paid little heed until she realized after graduating that meant that should the king get too comfortable with Kalnach, her life would be in danger. In her time there, she found that her ring resonated with fire elemental powers, its powers amplified by her presence of mind and her surroundings yet near worthless in cold and wet conditions. For whatever reason, there was a gemstone missing. The relic was missing a crucial component and no amount of gems fitted into the bridge did anything noticeable.

She met another female officer in training to her surprise and joy, a year older than her. Before their relationship could amount to anything more, she suddenly left the academy under the pretense of family problems. She learned that night that she was hazed badly by the other men. This callous and sexist attitude infuriated Amelia and she vowed that she would not quit no matter what happens.

She surprised many of her detractors, especially her mentors. This was partly thanks to her earlier education and also her determination to make something worthwhile for herself. Though she wasn’t the top of the class, being a woman and doing above average, especially during spars, singled her out. It wasn’t long before she became isolated once more and had to deal with unwanted advances. She also did not write to her brothers, out of fear that her identity would be discovered and that her brothers would in trouble for communicating with her.

When she was 23, she graduated with the lowest commissioned rank of Lieutenant and given command of the Red Lion Battalion, Third Platoon. The men under her command have expressed a mixture of emotions at their young and fair officer: anger that a woman was higher ranked than them, respect it was the first time they’ve seen or heard a woman become an officer, and confusion.

Lt. Amy Lockwood’s first task was to reinforce the southern borders. The guard outposts there were understaffed and they could not afford to defend both the roads for safe passage and town from marauding gangs of thieves. She did so successfully albeit with the deaths of 6 of her men and several casulaties. Given the honor of executing the remaining thieves or throwing them to jail, she opted to leave the choice to the local constable instead feeling that the weight of their lives would be too much blood on her hands. He chose to execute them the day after and Amy learned a valuable lesson. No amount of washing would remove the blood on her hands. Such was the cruel nature of her job.

“You look pale ma’am. Whats’a matter?”

“Hello Louie. Just thinking that I’ve been trained for this. Or so I thought. I am not naïve enough to think that no one will die in battle. I thought I was prepared. Yet, here I am still shaking uncontrollably”

“Green aren’t ya? You did pretty well all things considering. Wet your feet a bit in the heat of battle eh? Great feeling ain’t it Lieutenant?”

“Yes, it did feel…invigorating. But the weight of the dead, how do you deal with it? The ones that we killed, the ones that died on our side?”

“You just move on I suppose. No point dwelling in the dead. They ain’t going to come back. Just pay your respect and move on. Think too much on it, I think you’ll be driving yourself mad. We’re all murders here, just we have the authority to exercise it, don’t we gents?!”

“Aye!”

“…Ha ha ha! Jokers, the lot of you. Pass the ale you rascal.”

“What are you looking at buffoon? Pass the Lt. her ale! To our dame and our fallen brothers! Drink up!”

The next two years, she spent her time on the southern borders keeping the peace. Two months prior to the King’s festival, she had received orders to return back to the capital to meet up with her battalion and provide extra security around the capital.

Personality/motivation: Amelia has always had a flair for adventure and she was fiercely independent even as a child. Growing up, she would always wanted to join her brothers on an adventure (mostly running around the estate with their imagination running wild). Feeling confined and bored of the "noblewoman customs", she often rebelled against her father's wishes to become a proper lady. Leaving her identity as Amelia Beauchene, she became Amy Lockwood, an up and coming officer of the army with no connections to her former life in the hopes of finding her true calling.

She isn't one to immediately distrust people. All people, even the bad ones can do some good in their life.

Relations:
Amelia has conflicting feelings with her family. Her father had other plans for her that she did not wanted, namely marrying her first cousin. Amelia had other plans and after much begging, she had her first taste of swordsmanship at the age of twelve. Her mother died of natural causes when she was 14 much to her grief. Two years later her father married another noblewoman. She has a sour relationship with her new stepmom as she believes she is the reason for her being disowned and she finds her unbearably snobbish. For the reasons above, Amelia has grown distant with her father though she does not mind her newfound freedom.

She has no problems with her two older brothers. One is an banker and the other is a civil servant former military man. She has one younger brother who has pursued a rather hedonistic lifestyle to her chagrin. She's made little contact with her step siblings.

Final Point - Spat at her step mother's face after she made incendiary remarks about her mom and her in a private conversation. Promptly left the room afterward.