Pascal

Adelon: Steeling the Faith (High-Casual)

“Two pairs.” An older man said as he lay down his cards. He had a pair of fours, a pair of sevens, and a ten. The brawny Dimuran’s lips curled into a smile as he loosened his grip and lay his cards down face up as well.

He didn’t say anything, but the cards spoke for themselves. He had three of a kind, fives. They both looked to Adrianna, who shook her head a little and placed her cards face down on the table, folding for the table. She didn’t have anything decent this hand. The Dimuran took the pot, a few cooper pieces, and then tossed another into the pile.

“Can’t we up the ante a little?” The older man asked.

Adrianna had set the ante, keeping it low. Her reason was that they were trapped on a boat, and if someone lost too much money, there would be a lot of tension in a very small space. Lots of things made people angry, but one of the biggest instigators of conflict was money. The last thing she wanted to deal with was someone feeling like they had been cheated out of their life-savings…not to mention the fact that she was pretty confident she couldn’t take the Dimuran in a fight if it came to.

“The kid set it.” The Dimuran said, gesturing to Adrianna.

“I know, but come on, let’s make this a bit more fun.” The older Muran replied.

Adrianna opened her mouth to explain her reason for keeping the ante low. Before she could, however, the Dimuran spoke up once more. “This is probably all the kid has. Don’t try to con him out of his savings, Lago.”

“Yea, yea…” Lago readied the cards for the next hand. They seemed to accept the reasoning given by the Dimuran, and Adrianna wasn’t going to argue with them. It was plausible that she, a young lad, didn’t have enough money on her person to bet more than a few copper each hand. Besides, Adrianna won the next hand and had won a few earlier as well. She could be very good at cards, but she didn’t want to be too good.

“So what brings you to Galloway?” The old man asked, trying to make conversation, or possible distract the Dimuran from noticing his tells. Of course, the Dimuran wasn’t terribly interested in making small talk, and he grunted as he stared intently at his cards.

“Looking for work.” Answered Adrianna a few moments later. It was plausible, and it wasn’t even entirely a lie. She was looking for new work, but she didn’t plan on staying in such a busy port city. In truth, she had been considering getting work on a vessel, and had spent a while watching the crew swab the deck and tie knots and such. This little trip was a bit of a test run, and assurance that she absolutely did not want to get work on a boat. There was absolutely no privacy, and given her…condition, the tight quarters just weren’t feasible. On the plus side, at least she knew one thing she didn’t want to do.

“What kind of work? Do you have any skills?” He asked.

“A few.” Adrianna said. “Why, are you hiring?”

“No, no…Just making conversation.”

“What are you going to be doing in Galloway?” Adrianna asked in return.

“Meeting family. My son’s wife just had another baby, and I’m coming to visit em.”

“Sounds nice. Enjoy yourself.” They continued to make small talk through the next few hands, though the Dimuran mostly kept his thoughts to himself. Lago pressed him a bit, but Adrianna didn’t pry. She understood that some people preferred to keep their privacy.

Adelon: Steeling the Faith (High-Casual)

Hey all, I know what I want to post but I've got the flu, so I might not get the post done tonight.

Adelon: Steeling the Faith (High-Casual)

A few modifications to Adrianna from the original game, but she is posted.

Adelon: Steeling the Faith (High-Casual)

Name: Adrianna Kirchner. Goes by Adrian Vargas
Age: 22
Gender: Female, but dresses and travels as a male
Race: Mura

Appearance:

Adrianna has dark straight hair with green eyes. Her complexion is a bit pale, largely unmarred with freckles or scars. Adrianna is very lean, but toned, and stands at 5 feet 7 inches tall. She binds her chest beneath a loose undershirt, though her chest is rather flat anyway. As she has cut her hair and dresses like a man, she looks much younger than she actually is. She does not have facial hair, and her voice sounds like she might not have hit puberty yet. She has no tattoos. If one looked closely, they might see that her ears are pierced, though it has been years since she wore anything in them.
Clothing:
Face:

Magic:
Healing- Adrianna can manipulate her own energy and the energy of others to heal. While her healing does not remove all scarring, it has saved lives before. Healing a lot wears her out, and she has traditional non-magic healing capabilities as well, which she uses more frequently than her magic.

Light Orb-Adrianna can create and control an orb of light to illuminate a dark area. It does not put off heat, however. She has good control over its size, and has recently learned how to “throw” it at people to startle or confuse them. It disappears if she loses concentration or it gets too far away from her.

Gear: She carries herbs, salves, and some basic medical supplies that she has gathered together in a pouch that hangs on her waist. Adrianna carries a small dagger in her left boot, and a two section bo staff, split, one on each hip. She also carries a sling-shot, and is able to use a bow, though she doesn't currently have one.

She carries flint and firesteel, some dried meat for rations, and a container of water in a satchel over her shoulder. In there is also a small book and writing utensil, in which she has drawings and information about plants and their many uses for healing, eating, and poisoning.

History: Adrianna currently travels as a man, as she is “on the run” from the Church. She doesn’t usually think anyone is looking for her, though occasional bouts of paranoia keep her in hiding. When she first left, she was nervous about being a young woman traveling alone, and so she put on a guise and became a “healer for hire.” She mostly uses non-magic healing, though occasionally infuses a bit of magic to prevent infection or prevent mortal wounds. The group she has traveled with for the last two years does not know for certain she is a mage, or even that she is a she…though there have been suspicions when men were able to walk within a few days of grievous injuries. No one asked, and “Adrian” didn’t tell. After all, every man in their company of bandits had a story, and few of them wanted to share their own. Still, she could not stay in their company any longer…”Adrian” should have started growing facial hair, his voice should have deepened, and overall it was too much of a risk. So off she went.

Adelon: Steeling the Faith [Open!]

Sorry for the delay, all! I wanted to make sure the group was moving along, but if your characters need to stop, feel free to control the group and make it happen. She made a point to ask the group if anyone needed anything.

Adelon: Steeling the Faith [Open!]

Adrianna departed from Malvin’s office but only got a few steps before a small child ran into her. No, it wasn’t just any kid, it was that girl, the seer. Her eyes were puffy and red, and though it was possible she had just seen something upsetting, Adrianna got the impression that it was something more…tangible bothering her. “Are you alright?” She asked, though the child made like she was just going to run for it anyway.

Glancing back over to the door, Adrianna wondered where she had come from, only to remember that the door itself was a closet. Being from the city, Adrianna could imagine a multitude of reasons a child might be crying in the closet. Perhaps she had just been taking a break from people, and the stimuli that brought on visions. Perhaps someone was harsh towards her, or perhaps someone had hurt her.

The thought of someone laying a hand on the girl, sent a shiver down her spine, and she casually opened the door to the closet, her paranoia making her think for a moment that she might actually find someone there. But there was no one, and Amune had answered that she was going to help the healers. Adrianna raised a brow, curious about the young girl with visions who also proclaimed herself a healer. Did she have both magics? Or was learning about healing more of a hobby?

Amune went on to say that she should be practicing with Gage. “I’m sorry he scares you. But he is not trying to hurt you. He is trying to help keep you from getting hurt by people who don’t care that you are young.” Adrianna didn’t know enough about her “training” and why Gage was chosen to try to interfere. She was going to be traveling with the group, though, so she was curious just what the young girl was learning from the seasoned fighter. The girl darted off to work with the healers, and Adrianna spent some time with some of the other mages she had come to know in Mutebo.

Over the next day, she had considered asking Taliya about the training decisions for the kid, and to perhaps talk about working with Amune herself instead, but she didn’t get the chance. Taliya was very busy, and Adrianna wasn’t sure she really wanted to volunteer herself for another task. Adrianna was reading one of the books donated to the small Mutebo library when she got the message to drop everything and go see Taliya. She waited outside of the office as some of her other future traveling companions assembled, though none of them seemed to have any idea what was going on either.

She dreaded the thought that Lionel would appear, or that perhaps he was already in Taliya’s office. As figures left the room, she tried to lean in to see if Lionel was working with Taliya in the room. She hadn’t seen him, but she couldn’t be sure. Fortunately, that question was answered when they were guided in. Adrianna moved all the way in and leaned against a wall opposite Taliya’s desk, leaving plenty of room for the others. Though she had been ordered to do things by Taliya, she wasn’t sure what kind of ‘missions’ the others had been on for her, unless training counted as a mission (which she did not).

Taliya then explained that she was sending them on a mission, which she called training. Adrianna didn’t care for the likening of the two. Training suggested that failure was okay, and the goal was self-improvement. This sounded like a search and rescue, one in which failure led to dire consequences. The mission was multi-part. They needed to find the merchants who had left the day before (the ones Adrianna passed early in the day), and they needed to find Gage. Adrianna had already ruled out salvaging the stuff, knowing it would be too difficult to get back to Mutebo if the crew manning the wagon had run into trouble.

The others questioned why, but Adrianna stayed silent. Taliya didn’t have to justify herself, really. They were staying in her territory, and her mantra was something like: “Do whatever the fuck I say, or get out of the way.” They should have been asking questions about the merchants’ path, or when Gage was sent to find them, so they could get an idea of where they needed to go to try to intercept the group without potentially stumbling across the same trap, assuming there was one.

“I’ve got a question.” Adrianna interjected as Taliya tried to wave them out. The others began to leave, but Adrianna stuck around for a few moments. Without this information, they would just be wandering around the main road out of Mutebo and flipping coins to pick directions to take. “Where was the merchant pair going, and did they have a set path they were planning to take?” Adrianna asked.

"To sell shit, where do you think? Where doesn't matter, because where they should be is here. They'll be on the road somewhere. Or in some animal's stomach. Just find out where they went." Taliya replied with her usual grace and poise.

“Wow. How helpful.” Adrianna said, her voice oozing with sarcasm. With the others not in the room, she didn’t try terribly hard to keep her tone neutral, and the femininity was more prevalent. “Well, if we don’t come across them by the time the path splits, we’ll just flip a coin.” Adrianna added, annoyed that they were being told to do something without all of the information. Hell, they might as well leave Ethan in charge of navigation.

She caught the others before they had gotten too far, and Ethan asked her where to start. “Yea, I—” Nymira interrupted and gave her opinion, suggestion they ask a guard which direction they went. When she turned things over again to Adrianna, the woman began again. “Yea, I saw the merchants yesterday when I was escorting some people into Mutebo, but there is really only one path out. The merchants had to take the road, because of the goods they were transporting. Gage might have gone through the woods instead, and I guess a guard might have chatted with them before they left and gotten some idea, but my guess he stuck close to the road so he wouldn’t miss the merchants.

Nymira made a comment about Gage not being alive, though Ethan seemed to think that Gage would be fine. “Either way, we need answers. Is there anything anyone needs to get before we depart?” Adrianna moved to the front of the group and began to walk out of the building. She always had her bag on her, in case she needed to go, but she wasn’t sure the others were so prepared. Ideally, they should only be gone a few hours. However, ideals generally weren’t safe to rely upon.

Ethan and Nymira were ready, or so they claimed, and so Adrianna turned her attention to the others. If they needed something, the group would make a detour. Otherwise, they would briskly leave the compound, with Adrianna in the lead. She paused at the gate and turned to Nymira, offering the woman the chance to ask the guards about Gage, if she wanted. The woman was flippant at best, and so, with a shrug, Adrianna continued on out of Mutebo along the main road.

Adelon: Steeling the Faith [Open!]

I should be able to post next. This week has been crazy, but they should settle around tomorrow.

Adelon: Steeling the Faith [Open!]

Lionel complained about people dying on the streets while the wealthy simply passed them by. Adrianna shuddered a bit at the memory of such sights. More specifically, she remembered when she was still in training with the Church, and she had wanted to use her healing on some of those people. Her supervisor at the time had scolded her for even making the suggestion, calling them degenerates who were just lazy and looking for handouts. If they wanted to improve their lot in life, they could do so through work and service to the Church. She even remembered trying to help them by telling a few people as much. Her words were not well-received, and it took her a few years more to understand why.

He went on to say that Magi didn’t serve any purpose anymore, but Adrianna disagreed. She felt like they were alive for a reason—even though mages were growing weaker, there were still beasts... and monsters. Perhaps it was just that the monsters they faced did not come from the void anymore. When she said that they should be done away with, Adrianna froze. Did he mean…some sort of extermination? The thought sent a shiver down her spine, and she was left is silent shock as he held up his hand to indicate that the conversation was over. The silence that fell between them was thick with tension, at least for the one in the pair who was not certain that the other was a mage. Did Taliya know?

She was still silent as he called them rats, though her knuckles whitened as she tightened her grip on her split bo staff. She could pull it out and strike him across the face. Would it solve any problems in the long-term? No. Would it make her feel better immediately? Perhaps.

Before she could, however, they were surrounded by the guards at the gate, and the people they had been escorting made their way around the pair to get inside to ‘safety.’ Lionel began to move off in another direction, and Adrianna made no effort to follow him. Her jaw was set, clenched tightly as she watched him walk away, regretting that she had healed him at all. After all, she was just a rat, scurrying—

“Adrian!” The deep voice broke her from her thoughts, and she turned in the opposite direction to see Malvin, one of the guards, heading towards her. Malvin was an older man, though still quite an accomplished fighter. He was certainly a mage, though Adrianna was under the impression that he did not need his magic as much as some other men did. She also knew that he had a family at some point, though since he never talked about them, she could only imagine that they were lost.

“What is it?” Adrianna asked, moving over towards him.

“Come over here.” He gestured for her to follow, and walked a roundabout way around the nearby buildings before wrapping around to the complex. Adrianna followed quietly for a while before she spoke up, again asking what was going on. He reiterated that she should follow, and then went into the complex, gesturing for her to follow. Inside of one of the offices, he pulled out a flask and took a swig before handing it off to her.

“What’s this about?” She asked as she cradled the flask.

“You looked like you were going to punch that twat…again. So I figured you needed to cool off a little and have a drink.” He leaned against the desk and pointed at the alcohol in her hands.

He was right, though it annoyed her initially that he had read her so well and made her walk nearly a mile out of the way just to give her a drink. She took a swig, though, and after a few more moments decided that he meant no harm by it. He was just trying to keep her from doing something else stupid. “Taliya’s got some kind of hard-on for Lionel, so I don’t recommend you make an enemy of him.” He continued.

Adrianna let out a breath and nodded. “Yea, whatever. Just…tell Taliya I’m not chasing him down or helping him out anymore.” She replied. She went ahead and chugged a bit more of the flask’s contents, feeling the burn as it went down her throat, before handing it back to him and opening the door. “That guy is a prick. And I don’t trust him as far as I can throw him.”

That got a raucous laugh from Malvin, to which he added a simple, “Fair enough” as Adrianna turned and departed from the room.

Adelon: Steeling the Faith [Open!]

Adrianna didn’t see it. Lionel seemed to think there was a big difference between not mattering and being useless. It was a nuance at best to her, and she shrugged noncommittally at his utterance. It just sounded like more complaining to her, and she didn’t care to provoke him further about it. She felt as though her point had been made.

Lionel at least accepted her point about Taliya. The woman was no saint, and she was glad at least he wasn’t so thick as to have missed that about her. His voice was thick with sarcasm as he commented on her knowing people well. “Well, some people wear their emotions and opinions on their sleeves.” She replied, glaring right back at Lionel. He was one of those types of people as well. He wore his thoughts, or at least what Adrianna assumed were his thoughts boldly upon his sleeve. He clearly felt as if he was better/smarter/more valuable than the people around them. He thought his pride and ego was more important than anyone else’s, and the group’s safety as a whole. Lionel made that clear when he forced the man to apologize to the trees. She didn’t understand why it had to be so hard, why the man couldn’t simply be polite to the group he was asked to escort.

Lionel then asked her about dealing with people and being civil about it. “Clearly not.” She mumbled at his complaint about not being diplomatic. She tensed as he again brought up her history with the Church. Why did he always have to be so crass? She didn’t like the idea of calling people dumb. Adults were the product of their upbringing, and in this world, rumor and fear spread much more quickly than truth and trust. “People are…ignorant because they are lied to for their entire lives. Magic being one of the worst.” Adrianna sighed, glancing back at the group before continuing.

“I mean, we are taught that magi once protected citizens of Adelon from beasts of the void, called heroes and revered as they brought peace among the races. Hell, the royal family is said to be a pure line of incredibly powerful magi still. And yet nothing is controlled by them. The Church controls it all, and to them, magi are a threat. I wouldn’t be surprised if they removed the royal family entirely, though I can’t imagine any of them lifting so much as a finger of resistance.” She was perhaps speaking out of turn about the royal family, and were she in their presence, she would likely have silenced her tongue for fear of losing her head. The things that came from her lips may have been somewhat common thoughts, but they certainly weren’t commonly spoken. Still, the fact of the matter was that no ruler in the last few generations involved themselves in the affairs of the Church. She had seen the King once or twice at large events, making a brief appearance, but they were more of figureheads than actual leaders.

“Magic is dying out, and one would think that the King would care. Maybe they haven’t even noticed and are just inbreeding to keep their own line strong.” She scoffed, looking ahead as she continued. Adrianna realized that she had gotten swiftly off the topic of Lionel’s question. “Sorry, I got a bit sidetracked.” She shouldn’t have been gushing to Lionel. He was probably the least trustworthy man here, at least judging by their conversations so far.

“My point is, I can’t blame people for not knowing. The Church has twisted people’s minds into thinking things about magic, about magi. They have made learning about it all but impossible, apart from pledging to follow their code, even though their code is what is destroying the very essence of magic in this world. The Church has us all turned against each other, and a dumb populace is a moldable populace.” It made sense for the Church to keep people from sharing too much information. That is probably how the Church kept the royal family so content, by sparing them from the pesky details like crime, education, and healthcare of the people of Adelon.

Adelon: Steeling the Faith [Open!]

“If Jerard is a hunter, then Taliya has bigger problems than being desperate enough to send me to rescue you.” Adrianna said. He just needed help focusing on his task. If she wasn’t there, that poor sap would probably still be apologizing to trees. Of course, she hadn’t seen how complainy the group had been before she arrived, so she didn’t think they were terribly annoying at all. In any case, Lionel might not even know Jerard, but Adrianna knew he was quite involved in Taliya’s resistance efforts.

In any case, Adrianna was rather annoyed that Lionel had such little faith in her, and thought that telling the drivers to expect them was a poor idea. Next time she would just let them shoot Lionel when he surprised them. Don’t be like that. Then you’d have to heal him.

“Oh look. They didn’t kill us.” Adrianna donned a sarcastic voice after the wagon passed them on the road. “How fortunate we are.” Lionel really brought out the worst of Adrianna’s attitude. She had tried to be decent towards him, but he was just such an asshole.

“No, but these morons with us are killing me.” Lionel complained.

“We can hear you!” One of the women called out in response.

“Oh, you can do something right? Well done!”

The exchange prompted Adrianna to ask about the people they were leading, though Lionel’s remarks were quite condescending. She frowned at his initial remarks and shook her head. “Every life matters, Lionel. Maybe you don’t think they matter to you, but that doesn’t make their lives worthless.” She hated to think what he would say about her when she wasn’t around. What’s more, with such a poor attitude, Adrianna couldn’t imagine what she was ever supposed to learn from him.

Lionel went on to tell her about a healer who didn’t know much about plants yet, a guard who lost control of his magic, a teacher, and another guy. Overall, they didn’t sound like bad people, and Adrianna shrugged. “They certainly could be.” She replied at the end, though her tone was genuine. Why Lionel seemed so eager to see all of these people as useless was beyond her. She considered how to challenge Lionel without being driven to apologize to a tree in the process, but Lionel spoke up, about Taliya this time.

She scoffed lightly at Lionel’s remark quoting Taliya, shaking her head in disagreement. That might have been a mantra of the resistance under the old leader, but Taliya was more interested in Magic as a weapon, and anyone who chose not to use it as such was the lesser for it. “I don’t know what you drugged Taliya with to get her to say that. All I’ve heard is, ‘If you aren’t going to help us fight, then get the fuck out of the way.’ ”

Turning to the woman near the back, Adrianna spoke up a bit, walking backwards for a few steps. “Miss, if you are looking to learn more about natural poisons and poisonous plants, there are some books that the healers keep that I am sure they would be willing to share.” She said before smiling brightly at Lionel. “But you also don’t have to learn how to kill people.” Of course, Taliya would be a little annoyed if the healer stayed in Mutebo and did nothing, but if she was a half-decent healer, she would be accepted. Hell, if she showed up when it was her shift, she would probably be favored over Lionel at the least.