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Post by Gabriel Duros on Jul 1, 2022 14:49:16 GMT -5
Some things are better left undone or at least that was the thought that crossed Gabriel's mind right as his boots sunk into the muddy bog land he had been sent too. After spending time in Gazablaak while passing through the Marsh Flats on his way to the Moonglade, he had discovered several quests that had been posted to which required a brave individual to locate lost objects abandoned in the marsh when caravans were supposedly beset by ghosts or whatever monsters they believe had done so.
Talking with some of the villagers he had ascertained that coming in from the southern border to the Hauntwood was the better and more stable path, and as such he had followed it without question, after all they lived here and he did not. Having been released to be a questing knight by his family was new and different to him as he no longer had clear cut orders or others of the Duros to rely on. Every decision had to be done by him and for him which would be intimidating if it wasn't for the fact he had discovered he quite loved the freedom he had been given if it came with the subtle threat of needing to manage his family's outward appearance and honor.
His quest so to speak this day was to find a box that had been dropped by a Jeweler on their way to Moonveil Village. It was supposedly made of rosewood and had golden filigree lining its edges and composing the clasp. The top of it marked with a house sigil of a Horse on an outcropping. With description in hand and general travel times noted before said ambush occurred, he had found himself finally at the entrance into the Hauntwood, purpose in heart and courage in his steps.
The mud was thick and encapsulating here, far worse then he had ever experienced in the Kings Valley or other parts of the Marsh Flats, although those were also under typical patrols or guided missions that tended to stay away from such places purely for logistical reasons. The thought of which would have made him wonder why merchants even took this route except for the knowledge that toll roads exist and probably cut into overall profits.
Shield in hand and his cloak billowing with each step the giant of a man ventured ever onward and deeper into the Hauntwood itself in search of his prize.
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Post by Lady Kamille Verlithax on Jul 1, 2022 16:38:09 GMT -5
The marsh was testing her curiosity, her perseverance and stubborness. She never thought of herself a stubborn, but now she wondered. She hated it there. She hated the mud, the smell the weather. She hated how dirty her boots were. But alas, she persisted.
"Do you see anything like it, Mischief?"
"CRAW! WHERE ARE YOU LILYYYYYYYYYY~"
Kamille couldn't be sure Mischief was actually looking for what she asked, since the raven had some sort of selective attenttion. If she was looking for something shinning, the raven would have searched for it with so much more enthusiasm. But the witch was searching for a lily. Or yet, a budding, a sprout. It was said that the blood lilies would only bloom under a full moon's light, after receiving a little drop of blood. They were incredibly rare - and, for that matter, valuable. She wanted to study its supposed properties, and hence stepped forward on her lonely quest.
"LILLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY, WHERE ARE YOUUUUUUUUU~~~~"
As lonely as she could be, though. Mischief didn't seem to be taking his job seriously...
She stopped on her tracks, looking around. Kamille was starting to understand why people kept from that place. It was not monsters or living creatures that loomed there...
Mischief, a bit further away, found something much more interesting than a plant. He dove as he saw movement, landing on the branch of a tree near the man. Even in the distance, Kamille stopped on her tracks as she heard the Mischief croak at the man's face, loudly.
"CRAW! THERE IS A MAN!"
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Post by Gabriel Duros on Jul 2, 2022 16:37:57 GMT -5
Wandering seemingly as it felt that way at least, Gabriel continued his trek through the marsh woodland, in around mangroves and possibly oak trees? Their forms twisted and mangled far beyond what they would look like in say the Moonglade or other less... decaying atmosphere places. Shaking his head as he tried to physically will the errant thoughts from his mind he continued onwards. Stopping in his tracks however at the arrival of a crow that cawed out an intelligent word, he assumed it was either a familiar or there was actually ghosts in these woods and he was sorely unprepared.
Stopping and immediately looking around he shifted his weight to either foot as he pivoted his torso side to side, shield at the ready for whatever it was that was waiting out there ready to pounce upon him no doubt! With an upwelling of courage bubbling up from inside him the boisterous man let out an equal boisterous howl as he shouted into the ether.
"I don't know who you are but show yourself! As a knight of Duros I will hold my ground against any foe if you thought me simply meek or easy prey!", his booming and deeply rich voice would carry out into the immediate area as he noticed the movement of animals scurrying away from his sudden ruckus. Using his free hand he tied his wavy mane into a high pony tail just in case things got serious, as it was better then getting hair in his eyes at a pivotal moment.
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Post by Lady Kamille Verlithax on Jul 3, 2022 4:30:41 GMT -5
A booming voice reached her ears, and for a moment she thought, looking where the voice came from. The man wasted no the time and introduced himself, a knight. He certainly did talk like a knight. The true question was if he was one of those charming protectors of the weak, or just some bully with a sword. She was about to find out.
She followed the voice, without trying to hide too much. She wasn't much of a stalker either way, her boots splashing on the marsh. Today she wasn't wearing her feathery cloak, safely tucked away around one of her purses, in a somewhat big bundle. In a moment of carelesness, Kamille didn't see the slope before her, and her foot sank in the air. With a loud gasp, she slided down the small slope, stopping only halfway through it, as she embraced the trunk of a twisted tree. As she peaked through the tree, the knight came into her view. Well, he talked like one, he looked like one, she'd only hope he would act like one.
Kamille tried to regain what little she had of composure, clearing her throat. She couldn't be more vulnerable at that moment: she just slided half a slope, hanging on a tree, with a few feet between her and the ground. The slope was steep, and although not too high, she didn't have the athletics - or patience - for that.
"Would you look at that..."
She still tried to act as if there was nothing out of the ordinary out of that situation, although she was clearly struggling and tired and frustrated.
"I could certainly use the help of a dashing knight right now..."
Kamille clearly didn't belong there. The feathery collar around her shoulders gave her kind of a classy look, and while her clothes were all black, it did look like quality stuff. Her hair was a bit disheveled, and her deep blue eyes asked for help. No weapons were visible, and no malice in her demeanor. The raven started to croak again.
"CRAW! Help!"
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Post by Gabriel Duros on Jul 6, 2022 10:35:58 GMT -5
And just as fast as the situation had been escalated, mostly in part by his own actions, the moment deflated as everything happened in a blur. He had heard the tumble so to speak of the woman and looked in that direction, his eyes locking on to her as she fell with... grace, clinging to a branch for dear life as she hovered above the ground now a small ways away.
Rusing to her he stopped himself below the lass as he held his arms outstretched and spoke with a warm and rich tone, "If you let go ill catch you miss. I do sorely hope that my actions didn't lead to this unfortunate circumstance but I apologize all the same.", it had occured to him after all was said and done that the bird must have been her familiar now, meaning that the woman in question was a magic user of some sort at least.
He was a tall and impressive specimen of a man, despite the mud that clung to his boots and greaves. His armor had nicks and small dents yet was still polished and presentable despite the grime that clung to it in spots, clearly showing that he was skilled if not dependable at least. If she had gendered any longer at him she would notice he held no weapon other then the kite shield strapped to his left arm. His wavy hair still in a high pony tail from earlier, steel gray eyes looked up towards her as he awaited her next action, a few strands of hair that hadn't been gathered during his hasty ready had cascaded over his face when he dashed towards her.
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Post by Lady Kamille Verlithax on Jul 7, 2022 4:27:04 GMT -5
She was starting to consider that one of her fatal flaws was that she was too trusting. A quick glance at the man told her everything that she needed to know: he was able to help her, and probably wouln't hurt her.
She looked down, seemed to make a few calculations, then slided to the side of her tree. When she let go, she aimed to fall between the arms of the knight, hoping they wouldn't both fall when she fell on top of him.
But he was a big man and the fall wasn't that high, so she managed to land exactly where she wanted: between the arms of the stranger.
Her black hair was all over the place, but when she looked up, her eyes still found his. She was clearly distraught, her boots as dirty as his, what used to be an impecable look traded for something more practical that would hopefully help her through that swamp. There was a little bit of elven in her features, and clearly a lot of magic in her bewitching eyes as she looked up to him, dark as the night seas. She sighed a sigh of relief.
"Thank you, sir knight. I hope I didn't take you off your duties. This swamp don't like me..."
She... kinda forgot to step back.
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Post by Gabriel Duros on Jul 10, 2022 20:45:10 GMT -5
He had leapt forward with a second thought and in doing so had continued to hold on to the lass as he set her feet gently upon the ground, his hands on either side of her midriff. His grip was sure and firm as he absorbed the force from her fall into his own hulking frame, hopefully giving her a relatively pleasant landing all things considered.
Still holding her within his arms without thinking, he spoke to her with a warmth and bass present in his voice, "I don't think this swamp likes anything honestly... Its a complete marvel I even made it this far without sinking into a peat bog or some other equally disgusting natural phenomenon....", a strand of hair moving over his left eye seemingly irritated him as he blew it away before smiling warmly and speaking again, "My apologies! Gabriel Duros, at your service my lady."
with a step back and a flourish he bowed to the woman ever so swiftly before righting himself and looking at their surroundings, "What brings you all the way out to this place if I may ask?", his voice smooth and enthralling almost as he spoke to her like someone would to an old friend.
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Post by Lady Kamille Verlithax on Jul 11, 2022 10:06:40 GMT -5
As he stepped back, she took a moment to tidy up her outfit and her hair. The man did express a stance of confidence and security, ready for the action - either to attack, as he thought her as a threat, or to help, when she showed not to be a threat.
"Nice to meet you, Gabriel Duros. I'm Kamille. Just... Kamille. I am but a simple curious one."
She also made a curtsy, as she had mastered during her time at court. He seemed trustworthy, she wondered, but still she thought to withdraw some information just yet.
Even so, she thought she could share her quest there.
"I am looking for a plant. I want to study the blood lily they say that blooms in these marshs, but I've been unsuccessful so far."
He brought her a warm sense of security, as if they had been friends all their lives. She had met more than a few knights in her life, and could easily say that few could pass on that kind of energy.
"What about you? What are you doing in this hell of a forest? Are you really a knight?"
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Post by Gabriel Duros on Jul 12, 2022 20:32:03 GMT -5
Her name was pretty once it was given as was her curtsy, a practiced one that showed she had some experience at least with high society or court to some regard. At the mention of her quest he nodded and showed her his back, looking off into the distant marsh.
"I can help you look for it then, I myself am looking for an intricate box of some sort that some merchant left behind on his travels here. In hindsight this quest maybe wasn't the best to take.... but I needed something for living expenses once I arrived in Moonveil Village. Inns and ale sadly are not free! ", scratching the back of his head as he spoke it would seem that even he was embarrassed by the turn of events thus far with his journey.
At the mention of if he was really a knight or not he just smiled as he pivoted at his hip to look back at her, "That I am. I am of the Duros family of knights out of the King's Valley if you have heard of us? If not then let me be the one to hopefully make a positive impression at least Lady Kamille."
Walking back towards the muddy area he had come from he added on, "I think this way goes deeper in, its probably safer to at least have greater numbers as we progress here if you don't mind? Just in case the mud ends up being deeper then it seems if anything....", judging by his heavier armor he wore it was probably his greatest fear being here - sinking into a mud pit and being unable to get himself free.
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Post by Lady Kamille Verlithax on Jul 13, 2022 4:34:10 GMT -5
She thought for a moment.
"I don't think I heard about your family or your order, but again... I don't claim to know everything. But I have to say... I have a good impression already."
Teamwork. She could do that. She wasn't foreign to that. And she hopefully could help the knight and he could help her. Two sets of eyes are better than just one. Mischief wasn't particularly interested in finding a damn plant, but maybe he could find a box...
"This box... Tell me more about it. Is it shinny?"
Imediately, that caught the raven's interest.
"CRAW! SHINNY!!!"
Mischief started to kinda dance on the branch of the tree he was, up and down, his wing halfway stretched. He was clearly interested now. Kamille giggled.
"You see, my friend Mischief is not very much interested in finding my plant... But he does love shinny things, and has a good eye for this. I'd assume he could also cover more ground with his wings, since he couldn't care less about... mud."
Kamille sighed tragically as she inspected her own boots. She was used to the forests, yes. But the forests weren't so... muddy and sticky and stinky. She realized very quickly she didn't like the marsh. Suddenly, she looked up again.
"Moonveil village? Are you going that way? Do you intend on living there?"
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Post by Gabriel Duros on Jul 15, 2022 9:27:14 GMT -5
At the notion that she was willing to accept a partnership for their individual quests here he smiled and spoke with a fire in his voice, "Then lets be off! Hopefully we don't run into anything troublesome, but if we do I have a feeling we will be just fine."
At the mention of a description for the box he was looking for he spoke with a practiced tone as if he was reciting a passage of text that he was forced to memorize and had no care for, "It is made of rosewood and has golden filigree lining its edges and composing the clasp. The top of it is marked with a house sigil of a Horse on an outcropping of stone. - Quite the intricate piece no? I was told that it also should be no bigger then a standard knapsack so I would assume maybe two by two feet? Its sealed so I assume there will still be merchandise in it or whatever it was that was being kept inside it."
The bird amused him as he understand that it couldn't help but be swept up in its basic instincts even as a familiar which was comforting to an extent as well, "I can help look for the plant, what color or marking am I looking for?", at the mention of Moonveil and if he was planning on living there he smirked again and shook his head before responding, "No, its just the first of hopefully many stops on my Questing. Once we are trusted and seasoned enough the Duros send us out on our own to go a Questing. We are to take any and all jobs that come our way and perform them admirably in the name of House Duros. Its like... advertising but with merit instead of words."
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Post by Lady Kamille Verlithax on Jul 15, 2022 17:34:44 GMT -5
As he started to describe the box, Mischief took flight and landed on the woman's shoulder, carefully listening to the man. It was hard to say what exactly he was trying to discover, but he was surely eyeing the man very intently. Kamille chuckled.
"Mischief, our friend needs to find a box. A shinny box."
"CRAW! SHINNY!"
Without much persuasion, the raven took flight and soon enough disappeared in the woods. She knew he would come back to them to retrieve the box once his greedy eyes found it.
"Don't worry, he'll find it. He learned that the word 'golden' is related to 'shinny'. Of course, I would just suggest having something else that is shinny to exchange with him, once he finds the box. Or else he'll get a bit upset."
And an upset talking bird wasn't something she wished upon anyone. Mischief's second name could be Petty. She listened the knight tell his story, and as he mentioned his questing would take him to Moonglade - close to her own home -, her eyes seemed to light up. She didn't say anything about it, though, as she would first want to see the valor of this sir knight for herself. As Gabriel asked about her plant, she started to search in one of her satchels for something. In no time she took out a parchment paper and showed it to him. It was a botanical sketch of a plant, with its several parts detailed. Right in the middle of the parchment, the biggest drawing was of a flower, not that much different than a water lily.
"The tricky thing is... The lily only blooms and presents itself like this if it receives a drop of blood under certain circumstances. So, what we actually need to find is the the budding."
She pointed to another, smaller drawing on the parchment. It was... a regular budding, like a flower just about to bloom. Hard to distinguish from other regular plants.
"Some say it is a bit lighter in color. Others say it will vaguely follow the moon, like a sunflower follows the sun."
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Post by Gabriel Duros on Jul 18, 2022 15:08:21 GMT -5
He watched as the raven took flight after he described the box, its cawing and proclaiming of shiny endearing at the very least. Nodding to Kamille he listened to her talk about the blood lily and show him the diagrams of it in her what he assumed to be, medicinal herb journal. Scratching the back of his head he thought for a moment before nodding once and clapping his hands together gently.
"I guess we should look for a clearing in the trees then maybe? I assume it would need plenty of access to moonlight that bough cover might hinder.... Deeper in then I suppose?"
Walking off again into the deeper parts of the swamp like forest he would pay close attention to the plants at the roots of the mangroves and other trees they came across, looking for anything that was similar at all to the description or image held within Kamille's journal.
"Tell me about yourself Kamille, are you a mage or witch of some kind I take it? Not that that is an issue, I just don't understand magic much... No talent for it apparently. ", in reality it wasn't so much that he had no talent for it and more that he quite literally held no mana within himself. Some of the mages of the continent would refer to him as Mana cursed more then likely as it was supposed to be a gift from the gods to have Mana anyways. To him he never really minded, you cannot miss what you never knew after all.
He would stop and hold his right arm up in front of Kamille to keep her from moving any further as he witnessed a creature of what he could only describe as unholy. A giant crocodile with rotting and barely tangible flesh laid sleeping at the base of a large and knotted mangrove or at least it looked like it was sleeping. Several spears and other weapons laid embedded in its flesh or what remained of it. Several stalks of some sort of budding flower interspersed within the small clearing containing the beast and aforementioned tree. The clearing had moss floating on its surface meaning that it was more then likely swamp water with depth unknown.
"Well isn't this a predicament....", his voice was low and barely audible as he whispered to her.
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Post by Lady Kamille Verlithax on Jul 19, 2022 10:10:02 GMT -5
His logic was pretty straightforward, and she agreed on walking deeper into the woods.
Kamille didn’t seem used to walking through the swamp, as he would notice the advance got painfully slow. She seemed to hate the swamp almost as much the swamp hated her.
"Technically, I'm a mage. I've been trained by Valatar, that presides the King's Council. Old fart. Stiffled, rigid. Like he has a stick up his... Well. He didn’t seem to want to teach anything I wanted to learn, so I set out of Court to carve my own way. Went back home. My village seems to think a bit of knowledge in alchemy makes one a witch. And so, for them, I became the town's witch. But I am a mage, yes."
She stoped when he held out with his arm, squinting her eyes to see what he was seeing. The rotting crocodile sure was huge, but...
"It looks... dead," she whispered to Gabriel.
There were also some frail buddings that she could swear were from the blood lily. The knight brought her luck, apparently! Or, at the very least, he knew how to navigate the swamp better than her. It was smart of him to think the lilies would prefer clearings instead of the dense woods.
"Maybe we could... sneak around?"
Another issue rose in her mind. If it came down to a fight with that thing, she was worried about the lilies being damaged. Of course taking the monster down would take precedence, but between stomping and burning the lilies, it would have been all for naught...
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Post by Gabriel Duros on Jul 21, 2022 11:09:17 GMT -5
Responding to her notion of a bit of alchemy makes you a witch he shook his head first, "The unlearned always fear what they do not know, no matter what it is I guess... Well if it helps any, you seem admirable and good at heart to both help me and still help those that scorn you."
He breathed deeply as he listened to her counsel, she was probably right about sneaking around but if the crocodile was alive or undead it would only be a matter of time before it set upon them regardless. Thinking for a moment he looked around and saw a path that was a little higher then the rest and had more solid footing. It was the perfect spot to make a stand at least.
"I cannot use magic as I am mana cursed, but us knights have a way to compel something to challenge us. I can distract it and lead it over there while you collect as many of the lilies as you can find. I doubt these are all what you are looking for but hopefully even one of them is that which you seek. IF it is an undead and you retrieve the lily in time, try to use fire or light magic. Anything would help really though.", pointing to the spot he had seen as he talked, he smiled at her in a reassuring way despite his words and demeanor changing to be more focused and sullen.
Stretching a little he met eyes with her a final time before charging off to the left side towards the more sturdy path he had seen, banging his shield on the trees as he passed them once a good distance from where they were, "If you're still kicking you ugly rotten beast then come and get me!", his voice would boom as he spoke the next words and caused recognition in the blank dark eyeless orbs of the Zombie Crocodile, "I Gabriel Duros challenge thee!". It was a compulsion of a sense, perhaps a gift from the gods to those who were stalwart and unabashed.
With a venomous reptilian hiss the Zombie crocodile unfurled from its resting place as it lurched forward and charged with abandon at Gabriel, uprooting mangroves with brute force as it charged.
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